This is precious..

Apparently, arch-lefty Russell Brand has been branded a ‘Right wing conspiracy theorist’ by certain sections of the media.

All I can say is; welcome to the dark side young Skywalker….

This is sooo precious….

75,000

I keep hearing this figure of 75,000 (Seventy five thousand) excess deaths at home in the UK not attributed to SARS/COV-2. Not sure if that’s the overall figure since March 2020 or just for the last 12 months.

75,000 people who died of not getting treated for heart attacks, strokes and other diseases. Not treated by the UK’s ‘world leading’ and ‘wonderful’ NHS.

Out of a population 0f 67 million it’s a drop in the ocean, but I’m sure the families of those who got locked out of the NHS their taxes pay for will agree, it’s a small price to pay for controlling COVID (Do I have to post a /sarc tag here?) Which the lockdowns didn’t.

To all those people who advocated for the lockdowns, is 75,000 extra dead enough? Doesn’t matter. So long as it’s not you, eh?

No means No

Rough night last night due to some well past sell be date cheese that was undercooked. My bad. As the cook of the household I will not be repeating that error again. Then again I was the only one who suffered, so, non fit, non injuria, eh?

Regarding our new place, the lawyers plod on with their searches and sundry details, so nothing to report there. I’m forced to sit on my hands and trudge through research topics, most of which are like revision, going over the same old ground in the same old way. There will be no house move until the new year.

As for trudging along the same old path, that is rather how I feel about all the politicians pushing the ‘no jab no job’ button. To which so many workers in the ‘health’ sector (and others) are saying “F**k your lousy job. Now where’s my redundancy money?” Because you can’t fire someone without recompense because you’ve arbitrarily changed their contract of employment. Frankly I’ve lost count of the times I’ve simply dumped a demand to ‘sign here’ in the waste bin and ignored the follow up emails. Retrospectively altering terms and conditions without overt consent of both parties beforehand isn’t exactly safe ground, contractually speaking. They can’t really force you to sign to something you don’t agree with. They can put pressure on you, but that skirts perilously close to ‘constructive dismissal’ territory.

As for a mandated third jab. Look, if the first two didn’t work very well, then what’s the point of a third? It’s just doing the same old thing over and over again in hope of a differing result.

I’ve said my piece on the dreaded lurgi and cross-immunity twice before. SARS/COV-2 is a coronavirus. As are a few variants of the common cold and influenza. Your immune system, if you keep it in good nick with a good mixed diet and moderate exercise in the fresh air, without wearing one of those ridiculous surgical or cloth masks, will, if you’ve already had a coronavirus infection, be ready to pounce on any future interlopers.

I see from my Spectator feed that scientists are suddenly ‘discovering’ cross immunity (Again) and going “Sounds good.” Now forgive me from my simple minded layman’s perspective, but I got taught this basic principle when I was an NHS employee and student over thirty freaking years ago. It’s epidemiology 101 as our transatlantic cousins say. If you get an infection from a specific disease vector, your immune system will be primed to cope with something from the same camp. It will be educated by a previous infection and ready to deal with another, similar infection from the same family of vectors.

So no, I’ve had two jabs, and if they didn’t work then I’m not bothering with a third no matter the sanction. I’ve had my dose of the dreaded lurgi prior to my vaccinations, so I’m immune. A PCR test might find viral fragments in my snotty sinuses, but as for illness, no. Mild food poisoning notwithstanding.

The good news is that ‘North’ is spending the entire festering season with us. We’ll be putting the rest of our disparate clan on our big screen in the front room using screen mirroring via our AppleTV box and Mrs S’s iPad at Solstice, Christmas and New Year. I’ll rig up a stand so her iPad camera is facing in the right direction, and Robert is one’s Father’s sibling. Easy peasy.

The downside is that because ‘North’ is a vegetarian I’m going to have to cook two Christmas dinners simultaneously. However this is not insuperable and is merely, like all cooking conundrums, simple logistics.

Me eeevil plan succeeds!

I was idly scanning through some of the links to this blog yesterday when Mrs S, kibitzing over my shoulder as she is sometimes wont to do, said; “What’s that Bill?”

“Oh, just a piece from Small Dead Animals is Saskatchewan.” I replied, switching tabs to Dr Malcolm Kendricks blog.

“Can you send me some links?” She said. I paused in surprise, but then she’s been complaining a bit recently about the PC bullshit she puts up with in her current online role, from which she is retiring soon.

Maybe she’ll be happier helping me plant and prune at the new place when we finally take possession. Which shouldn’t be too long now. The money sits like a coiled spring, the price is set and all I have to do is trip the trigger to send it winging electronically to the vendors.

“Who’s this?” She pointed at Dr Kendrick’s latest post and I handed my tablet across for her to read. For several minutes she maintained a thoughtful silence. “Have you anything else like this?” She asked.

So I sent her ten links from my sidebar of sundry malcontents and science sources via email. Since then it’s gone dreadfully quiet, apart from the odd chuckle of quiet agreement emanating from the kitchen.

I’ve already infected her with my philosophy on how to invest and grow money, which has paid off moderately well. Now she seems to be absorbing the same data sources. Could my evil plan be set to succeed?

Twenty wokety four

On the topic of ‘cancel culture’ and all things ‘woke’. The excellent Dr David Starkey, TV Historian recently cancelled by the woke from Cambridge, has his own, sparkly and brand new YouTube channel. Well worth a view. We wish him every success.

As for the people who got Starkey and so many others ‘cancelled’, really people? Were their ‘crimes’ so heinous that the woke had to go after their livelihoods? In Starkey’s case for a mere figure of speech? How petty. How spiteful. How empty.

Emptiness. That kind of sums up those who follow the precepts of ‘woke’ and those who bow before it. People who live in a spiritual desert, chasing after each mirage of ‘offence’, dying of thirst in a wilderness of their own making. How lonely they must be. Soulless. Living in a purposeless Hell of their own creation staring into the false mirror of cowardice. Thinking that all must be the same. Or else you can’t come out to play.

“Wrong!” cry a chorus of damned woke souls. “Sticker you are so full of it! We are fighting all the horrible isms that plague society. The haters must be cast out whatever the cost! Only we can save the world!” And so on…. Yawn.

Yerrs, fighting. Let’s think about that for a moment. Was there really a problem to fight against in the first place, or is this some kind of self vindication strategy? Something to make the ‘woke’ feel important when there’s this terrible clawing emptiness inside? Part of a perverted search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless world perhaps?

That being said I constantly find myself bewildered as to why anyone pays these self-appointed judges and pundits any attention at all. There’s very few of them. Yet they wield a power way above their pay grade, and it seems most of them are what techie types used to refer to as ‘HR Handbags’.

I see them as poor manipulated pawns fear-programmed and convinced that their way is the only way. Even when recent history is strewn with so many examples of their top-down philosophies failures. Like those implemented by Lenin, Stalin, Ceausescu, Pol Pot, Chavez, Madron and on and on and on. Never mind all the big corporations that got too big and byzantine trying to run their employees lives before needing serious restructuring.

That’s the problem, Socialism, Corporatism, there’s hardly a fag paper between them. They all think they own other people. Frankly I’m led to the conclusion that it’s all about a few chasing unlimited power and influence, funding and grooming the activists with what is for the manipulators, chump change.

It doesn’t matter anyway. There’s a big financial crunch on the way to rival 2008 and then some. The powers that be might manage to kick the can down the road for a year or two longer, but it will happen, the imbalances are there and will only take one dog in the manger to push things over the edge.

This time the Banks that will start the cascade are in China. Because they’re heavily invested in hugely overpriced real estate. (A process, some would argue that has already begun) The rest of the Pacific rim will follow, then a good deal of Africa, the USA and followed by Western Europe as global trade goes into a worse cascade failure than at present. No one will be able to afford anything. And as a Big Chief once said; “You will find that you can’t eat money.” With the end result that big ‘compliance’ departments will find themselves being rapidly downsized into a market that has no need of whatever it is they think passes for their skill set.

Time to start that vegetable patch and plant a few fruit trees methinks. At least you’ll have something to eat if (and perhaps when) it all does go South. In any case, I can vouch for the fact that home grown is, with a little time and effort, better than store bought. The growing process can be fun too.

The powers that be aren’t being very astute either by banning the unvaccinated from various events or places or forcing them out of the workplace, as Biden wants to do in the USA. The truth is the current crop of politicians haven’t a clue, and can’t face the cold hard facts that the mRNA vaccines don’t stop people getting infected, all they do is mitigate some symptoms. Masks don’t work because they can’t stop microdroplet spread and may even act as a catcher and concentrator. Nor do lockdowns as they incarcerate carriers with the uninfected. Like God (to paraphrase a Parachute Regiment song I learned from an old drinking buddy) the virus is airborne and endemic. It’s everywhere. There is no escape. If you’ve had a dose, congrats, you’ve got much better immunity than by mRNA vaccines alone. If not, you might be part of the lucky 20-30% of the population who have a natural immunity.

As to efficacy, might I share this request for clear critical thinking from Dr Peter Doshi, the Assistant editor of the BMJ, an essential reference for medicines and their side effects.

So it doesn’t matter that the UK ‘Conservatives’ are about to foist up to a two year sentence on anyone who disagrees with their online censorship bill or any of Bodge Job the clowns insane ‘Green’ policies. That’s a thought, does the UK have an extradition treaty with Ireland? Hmm. lemme see now; Australia, United States of America and Hong Kong yes. Does that include the EU with the UK? Hmmm again. Maybe not so easy. I might be safe. At least until Twenty Wokety four.

Was that a knock on the door? Is that the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Special Branch? Sod ’em all, they can wait out in the rain. I’ve got a property deal to do.

High blood pressure finance

Moving money internationally is always a pain. The myth perpetrated by Hollywood is that arranging wire transfers just requires a computer and an internet link. Yeah, right. My experience, over the last week, was a drawn out process with multiple layers of security and ID verification which took my cell phone, landline and Internet connection in combination with a VPN. It also involved, at least as far as the retail level banks are concerned, long waits on hold via occasionally fuzzy transatlantic phone lines.

This week was a case in point. I had to shift a six figure sum from Canada to Ireland via my currency brokers. In three tranches, because retail banks put limits on this sort of thing to prevent all manner of dodgy doings, so they say. That and charge like a rhino with a bad migraine and a land rover fixation, and give a lower rate than my brokers.

The first amount on Monday was only five figures, because that was my account limit. The second and third however, required extra, in-person verification and couldn’t be done online alone.

On the second transfer, this being the largest slice of capital, I was handicapped by interference on the line from a solar flare. Such is the nature of transatlantic phone calls. The more links you have to go through, even at the speed of voice communications, the more likely things are to fall over. Solar flares make the international phone links fuzzy. Hence my second episode.

Ten minutes after dialling, entering my account details and getting multiple verification codes I spent a frustrating twenty five minutes battling against a fuzzy line and an English as a second language call centre person. I swear I thought I was going Mutt and Jeff for a while there because I could not make out more than one in three words. But through sheer bloody minded persistence I was able to get through another three layers of verification and get the transaction pre-approved. The rest was fairly routine, including a call from the fraud department early yesterday afternoon, just to check it was l’il old me shifting large amounts of cash around.

For the third transfer on day three I got repeatedly cut off by ham fisted call centre people twice after spending over thirty minutes plus on hold on each occasion. Good job I have a low cost international package on my phone account. Even so, I’m not looking forward to my next phone bill.

All I wanted was to confirm was, yes, I have the funds to transfer, no I’m not under duress, it’s not going to the UN or foreign ‘charity’ to unlock some hidden funds, no I’m not a terrorist (But at this rate I’m thinking of becoming a gorilla) and would you mind letting me move my own bloody money if you would be so kind. Yes it is a large amount isn’t it? Yes it is mine and I want to move it to these people, no, not those, I have a brokerage account to send to because I’m buying a house in Ireland. NO! I do not need a mortgage or financial advice. I just want to move what is mine and no I do not want you to ‘protect’ me. Yes I’ve already cleared this with fraud prevention once today. You should see that they’ve already put a mention in the notes. Just authorise the sodding transaction for f*cks sake. DO NOT put me on hold yet AGAIN. Tell me what details you need and I’ll verify my personal details and the account to which I want the money sent. Yes it’s on my list of authorised payees. Here is the name of my brokers and their escrow account, here is the IBAN (International Banking Number). I’ve done this twice already this week. Yes, I do have a tax free savings account, I also have a financial adviser, and he’s very good. NO! I do not want to change, I’m not giving you his details for a cost comparison. Just authorise the transaction FFS! Thank you. No I wasn’t being sarcastic, honestly. Have a nice bleeding gender neutral day.

These are truly the times that test your blood pressure.

Commercial and non-retail banks by contrast use differing protocols and have better and more competently manned call centres. My experience with them is totally different. So long as you maintain a six figure balance they are a delight to work with. Staff are usually better trained and well motivated with a good grasp of several languages and accents you could use to cut glass. Retail banking, not so much.

So yes, I’ve had a day. But have come through triumphant. Matters proceed toward their hoped for conclusion. I hope. Now I need a beer.

A celebration of failure

In the rat infested streets of Glasgow, politicians and activists, in an hubristic attempt to make themselves look relevant, instead of just a flaming nuisance, will gather shortly to ‘save the planet’. We are not directly told from whom, all we’re told is that we peons have to change our ways, not the politicians and activists of course, because they are far too important and need their five star hotels and business class travel to zip across the world being insufferable bossy boots.

Fortunately for us, but maybe not, because according to some sources the talks have already ‘failed’. Because the Chinese and Russians aren’t on board. One can almost hear the giggling from Moscow and Beijing.

To save you the brain damage of actually watching any of the COP26 speeches and presentations I’ve summarised a typical conference speech below;

Non binary gentlepersons, we are here today on trample on the natural rights of everyone but us… blather… blah blah blah (repeat as below)

…Build back better, (pause to do some pointless virtue signalling) ten years to save the planet and other such bollocks. We must act now and follow the science, blah, pointless blather, obfuscate, tell blatant lies and deny that the science is still hotly debated where debate still is allowed to happen, despite the much vaunted climate models being inaccurate to the point of worthlessness. Bullshit, more blather, we’re all wonderful and the peasants have to be locked down forever more. Blah blah, blah. Utter cobblers. More lies and “look! over there! an Aardvark!” and anyone who disagrees should be sent to the gulag, their property stolen and we’re doing this not to line our pockets but to save the Earth. Honestly guv’nor. I’m cutting me own froat and the cheque is in the post and of course I’ll respect you in the morning…. Thank you and where’s my over inflated speaking fee?

To quote Dale Arden from Flash Gordon;

“Flash! I love you, but we’ve only got fourteen hours to save the Earth!”

Afterthought. Wouldn’t it be a pity, a humungous crying shame if there was a huge outbreak of Leptospirosis (an endemic rat borne disease) amongst the COP 26 delegates? Couldn’t happen to a bunch of nicer people.

Alternatively, you could listen to Dr Ross McKittrick for a more reasoned perspective.

Doesn’t matter

Apparently arsebook is undergoing a ‘transformation’ to be rebranded with the infinity symbol. Makes no odds to me, I won’t be using the platform. Zuckerberg et al can f**k right off.

In the real world, Mrs S and I stopped off for a light lunch at a café in Galway and overheard the following exchange at the next door table. A well travelled couple were regaling their friends with stories about a Journey through South America and how much they had enjoyed themselves.

“You should put that on Facebook.” Said one of their friends. This statement was met with a mildly derisive chuckle. “Or Twitter.” The chuckle turned into laughter.

The reply came back. “Not on Twitter or Facebook. I have better things to do.”

Yet some people allow some cretins on anti-social media to disrupt their lives because someone posted something they didn’t like? Only one way to play that game is not to play and get on with real life.

If you haven’t seen this already….

Show it to your friends and ask them politely if they haven’t suspected this phenomenon for some time. Two tier policing. Calling people ‘Deniers’, ‘anti-vaxxers’, or ‘alt-right’ when all they are doing is voicing legitimate concerns.

And the follow on interview after Neil’s considered words lit up the Internet’s servers.

We in the Scriblerus group have understood this gaslighting and mischaracterisation for some years now. It’s just nice to hear a more mainstream personality lend his voice to the chorus.

Why ‘Green’ isn’t

As a wannabe Apiarist, I’m spending a lot of time studying the habitat and ecology, not only of Honey bees, but all the other native species of bee, like the bumblebee.

We keep getting told that bees are vanishing, but it’s not really honey bees under threat, it’s the wild varieties, essential pollinators, that are being decimated. Mainly by arable monocultures and modern pesticides. You know. All those things the politicians want to force us into with their ‘Green new deals’. Because subsisting mainly on vegetables is supposedly ‘good’ and meat eating is ‘bad’. Allegedly.

Unfortunately, anyone involved with ecology and mixed arable farming who has done their homework should be able to tell them that little land is really suitable for only vegetable crops, and a lot more is best suited for raising grazing species like sheep or cattle. There has to be room for all.

There is also the point that vegetable monocultures are positively harmful to native species of bees (And eventually the soil, water and air), which are some of the most tremendously useful creatures on the planet. It is why people say that that bees are going extinct. It is because they are being driven out of existence by the excessive use of land for vegetable and cereal growing. By increased pesticide and herbicide use, by Neo-nicotinoids and other such pesticides.

In order to fulfil the wild green fantasies of people like Bojo the clown and his missus, and all the other idiots who will be fulminating at COP26 in dear auld Glasgae, native species of bee would have to be wiped out. Why? Because these native species need marginal and grazing land which is their native habitat.

For a rough grounding on the topic, see video below. Yes, yes, I know it’s American, but the same variables apply. Larger monocultures and a higher vegetable content diet mean fewer wild species of bee, poorer pollination and eventually lower yields and all the bad things that follow.

Yes honey bees are great, and provide the basis for nice sweet stuff, mead, wax and sundry health and skin products, but we really need the wild varieties as well. Which is one of the things Mrs S and I are planning. Habitat. Making the layers fit together to form a better whole.

Unfortunately there are far too many moralising vegetarians who don’t understand how nature fits together who are responsible for the depletion of wild species essential to the health of the planet. Mixed agriculture, apiculture and arboriculture is the way forward. Omnivores, not vegetarians will save the world.

Never mind your carbon footprint. If there aren’t enough pollinating species, at this rate we’ll all be f**ked far sooner than by any projected temperature rise predicted by dodgy mathematical models. Models which might as well have been created by a newspaper astrologer for all their demonstrated ‘accuracy’. CO2 isn’t the problem, it’s the green meanies fantasy view of nature that will eventually cost us the earth.

In the meantime…

While waiting for notification that the vendors lawyers are doing their thing, Mrs S and I were talking about the current culture war fallout this morning, where people are being ‘no-platformed’ or ‘cancelled’, and politicians are calling for an end to online anonymity because the Internet is a ‘cesspool’.

“You can’t just shut down debate because a tiny minority of immature people are offended.” I remarked as she listened to a Sam Harris podcast.

“Ironic isn’t it?” She replied. “That the platform so many of these so-called ‘serious’ conversations are being had on, is called Twitter…” Well, it made me smile.

Such exchanges are one of the reasons I married her. And why we stay married.

Hurry up and wait….

Had a nice-ish weekend away. However, returning to my desk I see little has changed. Hi ho.

There’s an old children’s ball game ‘Pig in the middle‘. Used to play it when I was eight or nine years old. There are three players. Two throwers and one who has to catch, the throwers have to throw the ball to each other and the person in the middle has to try and catch it. Played in the right spirit it can be a lot of old fashioned fun.

Not so much fun at present. Continual delays by issues on the side of the property vendors are stressing out Mrs S, she in turn is venting twice daily (at least) in the direction of yours truly. Which is something I really don’t need. This situation is creating disturbed sleep patterns and putting me in my least favourite position, that of a no-win scenario. The vendors are taking their time, however the exchange rates are still relatively favourable but will not stay that way forever. I have people from all quarters coming at me asking why this or that is not happening. All I can do sometimes is bury my head in my hands and point. Because somehow, apparently, this is all my fault.

Normally I can brush most of these delays and general shenanigans off, but right now everyone is losing their shit, which is landing upon my desk to deal with. Thus leaving me with a pile of the wet and smelly stuff, hence the following appeal; send Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Passing thought; I’ve got lawyers and money, not so sure about the guns as I’d be forever in a cleft stick wondering who to shoot first. Please do not let me be so tempted. I have an eccentric and often perverse sense of humour.

In a time when everyone else seems so gosh-darned angry, said sense of humour is an essential psychic survival tool. It helps me get past things which are of such cupidity and foolishness that my haemoglobin does not spontaneously fission.

Just a thought….

Based upon the original quote from turn of the 20th century preacher W L Watkinson. For some reason I always thought it was philosopher Bertrand Russell. Just goes to show eh?

“Far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

But I Say; what the hell, why not do both? Nothing like a good swear when you’ve just burned your fingers on the stupidity of others. I hear a lot of swearing from Mrs S’s office of late. Mostly about people who don’t read their email and can’t follow simple directions, even if said instructions are properly indexed and bullet pointed.

Note: I see someone took a knife to David Amess MP. He’s been heavily involved with Middle Eastern negotiations, so might his assailant have such a connection? If they did, then expect radio silence on the ethnicity. If the guy was an indigenous Brit, then expect loud media trumpeting from the usual suspects about ‘incels’ or ‘white supremacists’.

Fortunately Mr Amess is not dead and will hopefully survive his ordeal. Unfortunately this may mean an uptick in security theatre regarding access to elected representatives and therefore a higher reliance on misleading polls and focus groups by MP’s in case they get slashed.

Did it not occur to his assailant that it is easier to change a person’s mind with words rather than an edged instrument? I’ve always thought that it was easier to win people around to one’s point of view while they are breathing, but that’s just me. I’m old fashioned like that. Even if the temptation is very strong.

Update: Mr Amess has died of his wounds. Still no talk of ‘White supremacists’ or ‘incels’, which in a strange negative way tells us a lot about his murderer. Also about the media, but isn’t it strange how an absence, extrapolated from previous behaviour, can be a modestly reliable guide to who did what? That the knife wielder was an idiot is a given, but what type of idiot will be revealed by the news coverage or lack thereof.

Update 2: Reliable sources tell me Mr Amess’s assailant was a Somali. Documented or not.

News on the home front is that the local council have done their thing, so we can proceed with the next phase of purchasing our new home. Sometimes buying property feels like swimming uphill through cold porridge, but at least we are making progress, albeit far too slowly for my liking.

The last James Bond

Went to the movies on Monday. Overall I’d describe it as a bittersweet experience. Apart from the still-bizarre experience of having to prove one has had the double jab to go see a film in a deserted (Apart from Mrs S and I) auditorium. The popcorn machine was down too.

Now I grew up watching Bond movies, from the dire (Woody Allen’s Casino Royale) from Sean Connery in Dr No and Roger Moore through George Lazenby, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton to the latest and (I think) best Bond, Daniel Craig.

If you go to see No time to Die you will note there’s a strong connection with the Lazenby film, from the premise (Megalomaniacal nutcase intent on poisoning the world) to some of the sound track, featuring good old Satchmo himself, Louis Armstrong. The poison garden idea is a direct steal from Fleming’s book (But not the movie) ‘You only live twice’ but overall I found it a good, well put together movie, well paced and entertaining. One for the video collection. I’ll happily watch it several times. Your 167 minutes will not feel like a waste of time or money.

The introduction of a black female 007, which some have taken as a tokenistic affront to the franchise, I consider a mere bagatelle. The actress concerned, Lashana Lynch, put in a workmanlike performance but was always going to be overshadowed.

Is it a good movie? All I’ll tell you is this; I left the movie theatre with a profound sense of sadness. Do I regret going to see it? Definitely not. Would I recommend it? Oh yes. From my point of view I’d give it two thumbs up. However, it is the last of a venerable line of action thrillers.

Even before entering the theatre I knew this movie was going to be a franchise killer. The last ever Bond movie, which incidentally, goes out with a serious bang, but apart from that I’m not giving anything away. You’ll have to watch it to find out the ending. No spoilers here.

I have the sense that I’ve just witnessed the end of an era.

Energy

Still in ‘hurry up and wait’ mode and can’t be bothered any more to comment much on the COVID idiocy that Boris the henpecked clown and cohorts are inflicting on the UK. It’s just a shame there’s no opposition worthy of the name. Labour are so wokely unelectable it’s untrue, and the flaccid Limp Dems and Greens just as bad. Across the political spectrum they’re all heavily invested in the “Carbon Dioxide is evil” meme. Dozy lot.

While we’re waiting for the go from the lawyers, I took some time out to think about heating and lighting, two things I am very much in favour of, having grown up in a series of cold and draughty building sites my parents chose as homes. Ever woken up with ice cubes in your beard? I bloody well have and I’m not in favour of it. Building regs be damned.

It has always created a sense of slack jawed amazement in yours truly about electrickery and the cognitive dissonance surrounding energy policies from all mainstream political factions. The end result of decades of muddled ‘green’ thinking has led to an energy crisis in the offing. Across continental and island Europe (Including Ireland and the UK) we are going to run short of electrickery because we’ll be relying upon big silly propeller driven generators to provide all our energy needs, all the while shutting down working power stations, which will be a bit of an own goal when the wind stops blowing, as it has been known to do during the coldest months of the year. The Russians haven’t stopped laughing at us since 2010.

Frankly, with huge, energy gobbling data centres being planned across the Emerald Isle, this situation promises to create interesting* power shortages, because no-one seems to have done some fairly simple sums or bothered to ask some basic but pertinent questions about power supply.

Here’s a couple of interesting topics to look up; fracking and Small Modular Reactors.

Fracking could provide a quick and dirty interim solution because an area called the Northwest Ireland Carboniferous Basin has been identified as shale rich, this comprises parts of Fermanagh, Cavan, Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal and Roscommon. There are also deposits in the West Limerick and North Kerry areas.

However, the Eejits who think we’ll all burn alive if anyone so much as lights a cigarette have the people in power by the lugholes. Ergo, fracking is currently banned in Ireland.

Small Modular Reactors are based on a simple and very safe nuclear technology, proven in nuclear powered ships for over forty years, which would supply serious baseload electricity supply. Rolls Royce do a good series. Yes, series. Not just one type but several. Not to mention the major players in the global market like NuScale Power (US), Westinghouse Electric (US), General Electric-Hitachi Nuclear Energy (US), Terrestial Energy (Canada), and Moltex Energy (Canada). The projected footprint for such sites is no more than twenty five acres. About half the size of a small family farm. Yet such a reactors output can be as much as the plated capacity of a hundred and fifty 2MW wind turbines, each of which needs 40 to 70 acres of land each. Nor do SMR’s hold any risk for wildlife, unlike wind farms, which are known to kill bats (Many of which are endangered species) and birds (Specifically Hawks and Eagles) alike.

Now consider this; each wind turbine averages an output of between 20-25% of plated capacity output at peak efficiency. So that means for example that a V120 2.2 Megawatt turbine actually outputs around 400 Kilowatts. From over twice the acreage as required for a single SMR that can put out a steady 300 lovely cosy Megawatts. For the hard of arithmetic among you, that’s 750 times more, I repeat, seven hundred and fifty (Thanks Mick) so you will need 750 wind turbines covering 56,250 acres to equal the output of one Small Modular reactor. Erratically. Intermittently. That’s more than 227 Square kilometres. Enough to wipe out several of Ireland’s larger National Parks.

An SMR can generate a steady 300MW for ten years without reload. With a considerably lower environmental footprint one might add, both in terms of materials and local ecological impacts. Zero emissions, steady output of clean baseload supply. Maybe even enough to power all those electrical fantasy batterymobiles the politicians tell us we all have to purchase by 2030, or is that 2040? What we’re going to buy these things with I have no idea as they’re several times the price of cheap and dependable ICE technology.

Then there is the option of Thorium molten salt reactors, in reality actually Uranium 233, a shorter-lived and less dangerous form of Uranium than Uranium-235. Which has been a workable but neglected technology since the 1960’s. Such power generators have two main advantages. First; they cannot be used to create weapons grade fissile material. Second; any shutdown or system failure carries little or no risk of contamination outside of the reactor vessels. They also produce much less toxic waste, and can, I am informed, burn the fuel from older and more toxic leftovers from older generation nuclear power stations such as the old Magnox power plants.

As for fracking, the claimed environmental hazards of this method, contamination of water table etc aren’t real. A properly sleeved bore means that gas cannot leak into the water table and thus any potable aquifer. The only real ‘evidence’ against fracking was highly localised phenomena where gas naturally leaking from the strata in certain areas of Wyoming, Texas and I believe Louisiana had contaminated the local water supply long before any actual fracking took place. As for the claimed risk of ‘Earthquakes’, the worst attributed to fracking so far have been around 2.1-2.3, which are all but invisible except to seismometers.

As for other means of staying warm in the chill of Winter, regrettably, Fusion power will always be twenty years in the future while the current models of reactor are being used. Even the giant ITER under construction in Southern France will never output the promised power. Why? Because it’s a Tokamak, and like so many other methods of nuclear fusion, the physical design of Tokamaks mean they can only ever produce a ‘bang in a bottle’. I would be delighted to be proven wrong, but I won’t be.

Of course when the idiots in power finally get the memo a good many of the population this side of the Irish sea will have gone back to burning dried peat for heating. Because no-one wants to be wet and cold all the time. Maybe all those currently employed as COVID inspectors will find new ways of making people’s lives miserable by being retasked as smoke spotters. Who knows?

When the power outages hit this January and February coming, just think; when you wake up with ice on your lips and that fancy air source heat pump gives out less heat than a wet fart. Then look at your electrickery bill and wonder who will let you take out a third mortgage to pay it. Consider thus; you could have had warmth and light in abundance. Could have had fracked gas. Could have had small nuclear. Might not be scrabbling down the back of the sofa for coins for the leccy meter.

Here’s an energy spokesperson on the matter.

Oh well, I’m off to buy some shares in the companies that produce thermal underwear. If the prognostications are any guide, it’s going to be a cold Winter. Don’t forget to wrap up warm now. I bloody well will do.

_{*Interesting as in having to warm one’s hands over a candle during the depths of winter. If of course, candles are still ‘allowed’.}