British Jobs for British Workers? Again?

Remember Gordon Brown's "British Jobs for British Workers" soundbite that bit him in the arse? I'm sure you do. Well, we now have another stab at the rhetoric. This time its "green energy jobs for british workers". This time its just as disingenuous.

I'm in my mid 40s and have a crap short-term memory, but even I can remember that the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight closed last year, due to lack of demand in the UK. Even I know that the government refused to intervene, thereby casting aside British green energy jobs. Even I know that any jobs created by the offshore wind farms will be mainly foreign. Even I know that even though thousands of wind turbines will be planted offshore, it'll still only generate a fraction of the energy required by the country.

We all know that the turbines will be built abroad, the installation engineers will come from abroad, the company contracted to service the wind turbines will be owned by a foreign parent company, as will the company contracted to lay the power lines. Even the generating and distribution companies comissioning all of this will be owned by foreign parent companies. So where exactly are all those British jobs going to come from?

A far better way of spending the money would be to give 100 percent grants to people to insulate their homes and fit energy saving lighting. That way we cut consumption, rather than attempt to keep up with current consumption with green alternatives. This is especially true of the rented sector, where there is no incentive for landlords to reduce costs as they don't pay the energy bills and tenants don't want to spend money doing up a property that isn't theirs. By reducing demand, we reduce the corresponding generating requirement. We also gain security of supply, because we rely less on outside sources of energy.

But hey, thats too sensible for government and all their vested interests.

Winter Feasting for the Blogosphere

This winter is proving a veritable feast for blogs.

You can have a pop at global warming thanks to this cold spell. The BBC even provide a thoughtful piece you can have a laugh at here, where they say the cold snap is still in line with global warming theory. Although to give them their credit, they have dropped the "man-made" prefix.

You might want to take the piss-poor forward planning of government and big business to task, maybe if you lean to the left you might want to rail against the Tory privatisation of the utilities, then here's your opportunity to have a go, as this report details big gas using businesses are about to be rationed, due to the increased winter demand.

I've already mentioned the fact that grit and salt are running out across the country. Again, lack of planning from national and local government.

Oh, and some no-hopers in the Labour party issued a letter four months before a general election calling for a secret ballot on their leadership, but the cabinet failed to produce anyone with the cahones to step forward for the rebels to rally round. Like the cabinet or any other Labour MPs are ever going to grow a spine. Makes Maggie Thatcher's "wets" look positively assertive compared the the spineless, sycophantic melee we have gathered round Gordon Brown at the moment.

So there you have it, lots to rail about, but I'm off to wrap up, stick my nose out into the cold and see if the buses are running to take me to work. First stopped their services in Portsmouth at 3pm yesterday, so I'm  only going to be working until then today, no matter what. The last thing I need is for all buses to be cancelled and have a 4 mile trudge home.

Weather Chaos: Theres no More Grit!

Wednesday morning, after all the snow, I bravely went to work as normal. Well, why not, given that Stagecoach in Portsmouth were running buses (as opposed to First, who weren't). I was greeted with the sight of half a dozen fellow employees sat on the display sofas. Our delivery (which has a 100 mile journey from the distribution centre) had turned back and the majority of employees had sniffed snow and stayed in bed. Even the ones within walking distance.

Anyway, we managed to open the store for an hour or so and served all of 7 customers in that time, so we shut again.

I think I've mentioned before that when I was a kid and we had snow like this, bus routes were the priority and were kept gritted. It seems not so today. Lake Road in Portsmouth appeared ungritted and the bus slithered along it. I saw a gritter on Kingston Road on the way home, but all it was doing was using the snow plough to remove most of the snow. The pitiful dribble of salt coming out of the back could well have been dislodged by the vibration of the truck moving along the road. Certainly the grit spreader attachment wasn't working.

So one can only conclude that the rumours I heard today are true: that grit supplies are running out and that only motorways and major routes are being gritted. There's not enough grit to use on other routes such as bus routes. The fact that the M27/A27 was well gritted as I went to rescue the wife this afternoon and the lack of grit on the roads in Havant seems also to bear this out.

Later on today it will be interesting to see if the buses venture out onto what will now be quite compact snow or or very slippery ice. I may be having my own snow day.

UPDATE:

We had a temperature low of -8C last night, as registered on my outside thermometer. Thats pretty cold for somewhere right next to the sea. Further inland must have been worse. All the snow must be sheet ice by now. I'm just about to venture out to see if buses are running and get to work. I may be some time.