Could Liz Truss as PM See the End of Smart Motorways?

 Liz Truss is apparently on record as saying the smart motorway experiment has failed.

Those of us that are forced to drive cars that are slightly sub-par in the reliability dept. know the buttock clenching and clammy sweat that s-called smart motorways produce.

The idea that you have a refuge every half mile or mile would be okay if there wasn't so many things that could immobilise the vehicle immediately. For instance a bad cam or crank sensor will instantly disable the engine. Once stopped it will refuse to crank. 

It may not even be the sensor. There are so many computers in modern cars now that just a simple inability for one computer to communicate with another can cause the car to shut down. Then after that it's a mission to diagnose the fault.

For instance I recently had a problem (one among many) in the cheap Vauxhall Astra I bought earlier this year. The display kept coming up intermittently with "Service ESP" and the engine would lose power until the car ground to a halt. Rather than the ESP, it turned out to actually be the crank sensor that caused the problem. Within metres the car was stopped. Now given my usual perseverance, removing the key and trying to restart the car eventually got it going, until a couple of days later it steadfastly refused to start.

Had that happened on a smart motorway there would be no way I could make it to a refuge. I would be stuck on a live lane of the motorway. With all the inherent risks that involves.

Now, if the use of smart motorways changed and said that the left lane was to be used as a hard shoulder most of the time and then it would be opened up when the speed of traffic got to below (say) 30mph, then you could understand that would be a safer option. But opening up the left lane to traffic travelling at 70mph is just a recipe for disaster.

Hopefully Liz will see sense and  rather than dispense immediately with the billions spent so far on smart motorways, will do the smart thing and use them intelligently. Keep the left lane for broken down vehicles unless traffic builds up to the point it's safe to open the left lane to live traffic.

Teacher Sent to Jail for Not Agreeing to Use Correct Pronouns??

 Interesting case here: I’d rather stay in prison for a century than play by these transgender rules, says jailed teacher (msn.com)

The teacher has been sent to jail for contempt of court for turning up for work even though he'd had an injunction served on him, rather than actual misgendering, but I admire his principled stance. He's standing up for what he believes in.

I love how at the end of the article it quotes the school as saying "No one is being forced to do anything". But yet the teacher sits in jail until he complies. 

I find it interesting that a school has suspended a teacher for refusing to use preferred pronouns on a child he's not even teaching, but then resorts to the courts to stop him turning up for work. 

To be honest I'd just walk away and let the school sink in their woke morass, but that's just me. I guess he loved his job.

Global Container Shipping Costs About to Start to Come Down?

 On YouTube the channel "What is Going on With Shipping?" has reported that finally the queues of ships off the Wets coats of America and especially the port of Longbeach have finally started to reduce.

It's hopefully an indication that finally the post-pandemic pressures are about to ease. 

The demand for goods into the US from the Far East meant that Longbeach was one of the primary ports for receipt of goods because it was closest to China. Heading to Longbeach reduced the steaming times and allowed ships to turn round and head back quickly, even if they did have to queue up to get into the port.

Now according to the channel, container ships are spread more evenly across the US, including the East Coast, which is a indicator that the urgency isn't there any more: ships are now transiting to the nearest port to the recipient, rather than making a desperate dash to the nearest US port in dashing back to China.

They are also seeing a corresponding reduction in shipping rates now, as the pressure is easing. 

Hopefully those costs will start to eventually ease in Europe and go some way towards reducing inflation. Those cheap Chinese goods that became a bit more expensive should start to reduce in cost again. 

Also there should now be more capacity for bulk shipments to get into ports rather than the more lucrative containers. 

It's hopefully an indication that the inflationary cost of the pandemic is over.