27 Mar 2014

And Then A Rainy Day….

As the weather here was rather inclement today, I took the opportunity to watch the Daily Politics show. No, really, I did.

That big girl, Diane Abbot, who was sacked some time ago as shadow public health minister, presumably as she was a pretty poor advert for that obesity epidemic thingy, and a guy from Forest were ‘discussing’ the imminent release of a review into the pros and cons for cigarette plain packaging.  But it isn’t plain packaging is it? It’s grizzly pictures of damaged human bits attributed to smoking isn’t it?

                                  Plain-cigarette-packaging-007
                        Australian ‘Plain packaging’.
Plain packaging is, well, plain. A plain box. As in plain - Lacking patterns, especially in colour. So, in theory, the advocates of plain packaging are miss-representing what they really want, right?

Anyhoo, {one} a review. It’s taken how long? Was it a free one? I do hope so as there’s not a lot to review is there? Hello health fanatics out there!! The bloody things aren’t on display anymore! You lot got ‘em stuffed behind plain closed doors! Remember? Hay, why don’t you squeal and squeal ‘till you get ‘em to put a really big nasty picture on the plain white doors? Wait!! No, please. I was joking!

Anyhoo, {two} the ‘debate’ seemed to comprise Diane, the ‘I’m all for it’ girl, getting to talk for what seemed like thirty minutes, not that any of it made any sense, and the Forest fellow, against, getting thirty seconds of trying to talk over her and the rest of ‘em. A perfectly balanced discussion.

Prior to this was a delicious moment when Michael Fallon, who’s not only an MP but a Right Honourable one to boot, and also the Minister of State for Energy, when asked about our possible shortfall in supply verses demand said it won’t be an issue until 2016 or 2017 and not to worry as we have mothballed power-plants that he’d get fired-up should extra capacity be required.

Mr Forlorn,  a question for you; you ever fired up anything big that’s been mothballed for any length of time? I’m guessing not. Trust me Mike, picking up the phone and asking them, however nicely, to, “Get that sucker fired up for tea time please!” Isn’t going to work ol’ buddy. And if that’s your bestest ever ‘plan’ then you’re definitely one blade short of a working windmill.

You could also see the curtains coming down when asked, never mind the mothballs, what about the three hundred or so diesel generator parks, scattered round the country, that are on standby for just such a shortfall and he wouldn’t even acknowledge their existence, never mind confirming, denying or even attempting to lie about them. So that’s Right Honourable then. There’s always the chance of course, him only being the Minister of State for Energy an’ all, that he genuinely doesn’t know about all those STOR parks……

In other environmental news from the other day, Siemens have confirmed they’re going to build a wind turbine production and installation facility on the banks of the Humber. Unfortunately, just hours later, energy provider SSE announced it has scrapped plans to build four major offshore wind farms. In view of the slow loss of gloss on wind farms, one has to wonder if someone hasn’t  liberally buttered Siemens parsnips.

Quote;  Dave Barry.

“More and more products are coming out in fiercely protective packaging designed to prevent consumers from consuming them. These days you have to open almost every consumer item by gnawing on the packaging.”

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