BBC: England Almost Unstruck

Regular visitors to this blog will know that Billothewisp has a very low opinion of the BBC. Especially the way the BBC has airbrushed England out of the political landscape of these shores.

The BBC's stance on the non existence of an English identity was initially explored in  This Early Post Of Mine.

As it is a year since I wrote about this, I thought I would revisit the BBC monolith. Lo and Behold! The BBC has partially relented.

Today on This Page you will find a reference to "Around England"

Of course while N. Ireland Politics, Welsh Politics and Scottish Politics all have detailed references to their own assemblies All the pitiful "Around England" entry boasts is a section on "Blogs around the Regions" Ugh.

Obviously the Great Good and Extremely Well Fed at the BBC are still wedded to Prescotts "Final Solution" to the West Lothian Question. They are fully on-board the concept of destroying England by dismembering it into some regionally antagonistic nightmare. The thought of having an area actually devoted to English politics is still a bridge too far.

I suppose this is progress. Even though it feels like we are all just trying to drag an rusty and obsolete old car up an steep incline. Maybe, one day, this festering travesty of a public service will actually fulfil its duty and really acknowledge an English identity and the existence of English political issues.

Until then, in this blog, England remains stuck out.

A Christmas Wish

In the new year, may all of our lives be enriched by honesty.

May our politicians tell the truth and look out for those who elect them rather than just themselves.

May our bankers guard the money entrusted to them and fairly treat those indebted to them, rather than just lining their own pockets.

May our environmentalists devote themselves to facts and people rather than just fashion statements and wishful thinking.

Happy Xmas.

Love and Kisses.
Billothewisp

p.s. Yes. I know. Fat Chance.

Predicting the wind - update

Just an early morning comment. This is the latest NETA data

Notice NETA almost got it right. But the wind arrived late, about settlement period 7 ( 3.30am) on the 23rd when nobody wants it. NETA had estimated that the wind would arrive during peak household demand period in the evening of the 22nd.

Luckily, the amount of power (even from new higher wind) is so inconsequential it would not have caused any issues. But if we had been relying on wind for 30% of our power there would have been mayhem.

Look at the graph.  When I say the "wind arrived" I actually mean the total metered wind turbine output rose from 2% of the much lauded turbine rating to a peak of 18.5%.

Just as an example. If this was the planned Alaska windfarm at East Stoke in the Purbecks which has a projected boiler plate rating of 9.2MW, the actual output would have risen from 0.184MW through to a peak of 1.7MW. That of course ignores the amount of power used internally to heat the turbine blades and gear box to stop them freezing.

Don't forget, these are nationally based statistics, and it has been like this (or worse) for days

Predicting the Wind

If wind turbines are to be used productively then there the wind must be reliably forecast.

NETA produce a prediction of the wind power contribution to the grid. They produce a sliding three day window using their initial and latest predictions with the actual outcome shown for the (usually) first day and a half of the window.

NETA (New Electricity Trading Arrangments site) are the people who sort out trading in wholesale electricity. As part of this they have produced a really informative and detailed site that is constantly updated. They do their very best to stay on top of many different changing parameters that affect electricity generation.

In my post yesterday (and using their data), I indicated that the national output from the turbines looked like it was about to rise to 16% of their maximum rating. This was  from around 4-5% per cent - where it has been languishing for  days.

While 16% is still pathetically poor, the predicted wind has not arrived. The output prediction has now been ramped down to  147MW  ( 6%)

Believe me, I am not getting at NETA for the variability in the figures. NETA is doing the very best job it can in exceptionally difficult conditions.

We call know about the unpredictability of the weather. We know how often the Met Office foul up on really short term weather forecasts. This again is not an issue of competence it is an issue of how very difficult predicting the weather is.

These figures underline in thick black pencil  that nationally  wind power is unreliable and  unpredictable.

It should also be noted that the absolute maximum output that was very briefly reached on the 18th December was barely 23% of their advertised rating. Most of the time during these four days the national output of all metered turbines on the grid has been well below 10%.

I have added the last four sliding window graphs below. Remember they all overlap so you can see the initial forecast (orange), the latest forecast (blue) and the actual outcome (red line) for three of the four days. The settlement period indicates the time. NETA settle accounts in 48 half hour blocks, so block one starts at midnight, block 24 at midday and so on.

(Note: the vertical scale changes between graphs 2 and 3)

Wind Power, Winter and No Wind

Just a short update on the contribution the theoretical 2.4GW of metered wind generation is making  at this critical time.

Here are some figures from NETA and a little commentary from me.

Using the same data set, yesterday and earlier today, NETA came up with these predictions:

This gives peak output (NOT the average) as 4% rising to 5% of the rated output. The prediction is that output may treble tomorrow. But this will still be only 16% of the total boiler-plate rating - and will peak at 21:00 - just in time for people to start turning in for the night. Even then it is still a shamefully low figure.

If we look at the contribution made by different types of generation :

We see that the contribution from windpower is 0.1%. From the much lauded boiler-plate rating it should be just under 4.5%

That is, the total metered wind-turbine supply in all of the UK, at this time of maximum demand is providing us with 1/1000th of what we need. The boiler-plate rating the wind industry keeps boasting about states it should be about 1/25th.

We have actually been buying 12 times as much as this from the French. Even the pumped storage facility in Wales (usually used to meet short lived demand peaks and to control the mains frequency) provided eleven times as much. Hydroelectricity, of which we have very little, still provided double the wind power output.

It has been like this for days.

Luckily we are not in a position where we are dependant on wind for serious power generation.

But what if we were?

What if we were dependant on wind power or, in this weather, on its spinning reserve? What if the wind power "enthusiasts" get their way and we largely replace coal generation with wind turbines backed up by CCGT (Combined Cycle Gas Turbines)

On first look, it appears that it would not matter - during a time like this we simply would be using the CCGT spinning reserve.

Regrettibly it does matter. It matters massively. Dare I say it matters catastrophically. During weather like we are having right now, it would push our dependence on Gas to almost 70%.  We would need to significantly increase the gas transport infrastructure to feed these CCGT stations. Most importantly we would need to stockpile much more gas. At the moment, our meagre 7 day supply relies on the fact that power generation can, over a number of days, maximise use of coal and nuclear and minimise gas. That goes out the window if you need to guard against wind power failing and have no other option but to use gas..

I'll explain fully in a future post. Possibly the next, maybe the one after that. But I havn't got time to elaborate at the moment.

Wind Power Today Revisited

I just thought I would give you grubby little Englanders  an update on how the mighty wind turbines have done over night.

Fresh from the BMReports Page At NETA.....

So, it looks like yesterday things actually picked up a bit and the national real output from our spinning monsters actual broke through the 4% of their rated value. Woooaaaa!

And tomorrow, (wait for it.) their output almost reaches 5%.

Strewth. With overnight improvements  like that perhaps we should just shut down all the other power generation plant ready for the mighty wind turbines to take over!

Just as a comparison. If your economical one Litre car was reduced to 5% of its power it would like ripping out the one litre engine and then replacing with the engine from a 50cc moped. I dare say though, that there are some supporters of this wind turbine fantasy who would actually consider this a good idea.

Unfortunately, there is one figure missing in the NETA table. We must always remember that a wind turbine is a machine operating in a unpredictable and harsh environment. They must never be allowed to stop turning in very cold conditions and freeze up. Unfortunately, when the wind stops blowing they stop. To get round this problem they all have heaters. Electric heaters in fact. This is to ensure that they do not freeze solid. Alternatively some can be "motored" This is usually used to start the thing turning in sub-optimal wind conditions. This incidentally is a nice little feature often exploited to give the impression of useful work being done even when the wind is too slow to actually turn the things. An absolute boon when trying to impress a politician or two.

So, in these freezing times when  power generation is being severely tested, not only are the mighty wind turbines providing bugger-all of next to nothing in the way of power, they are no doubt, in many places actually acting as a further drain on the grid.

Pathetic isn't it.

Wind Power: The Reality Today.

In these frozen autumn days, Billothewisp thought he would cheer himself up by having a look at all that free energy flowing into the grid. After all wind turbine generators  get a Billion quid a year in subsidy paid for by the likes of Billothewisp and other assorted grubby English folk, so perhaps a little payback in the form of happy-time may be in order.

He had a look at the NETA Site, which is the site that shows the day-today costings and accounting for the countries power grid. It tells us how our electricity is made, transmitted, paid for and regulated.

Billothewisp puzzled over the figures for the mighty wind turbines. Surely there was something wrong. There must be a mistake! There was no happiness here! A single tear rolled down his knarly cheek.

He had seen this graph:

His rheumy old eyes misty with tears, could barely make out the contribution from wind power. A billion quid seemed a lot of money for a barely legible pixel wide line!

Then he read this.

For a moment his sorrow was placated as he read the bottom line (or boiler plate rating) giving the theoretical output for his billion quid. But then he looked up.

Oh sorrow on sorrow!

The boilerplate rating for all the wind turbines in the country was 2430 MW but the maximum nationwide output today was 276 MW.

11.3% of their much lauded boilerplate rating.

But then it got worse . He looked at the predicted output for the next day. The maximum output was going to be just 94 MW.

That is 3.8% of their boiler plate rating.

I will write that again in large letters in case you missed it.

3.8% 

But even worse than that. This maximum occurs at midnight. Just when Billothewisp and the rest of old England is tucked up in bed, with the low energy light bulbs turned off.

Don't forget these are national figures. Not a single isolated case. National. All major turbines. And these are the PEAK values for these days.

So much for the argument that if the wind isn't blowing in one place it will make up for it elsewhere.

These figures are so bad, so dreadful, so outrageous that I feel I must have made a mistake. Our politicians and assorted environmental dreamers are not really this gullible are they?

Surely we are not spending and extra One Billion quid a year for this?

Thanks to Jockdownsouth and his comment on This Post at WUWT that tipped me off to the magnificent NETA site and the distinctly un-magnificent figures for wind generation.

I think I am going to have some serious fun here with the figures from NETA in the future.

Immigration and the Elected Government

I am only an old oily English rag, but as I remember, the elected government of this country decides the policies that this country should pursue. If my memory serves me correctly, we elect this government.

That is us  - The People. Nobody else.

As I further remember, the current coalition promised to try and stem the flood of immigrants (legal and illegal) pouring into this country (Look at the population forecasts - See Here).

Usually elected governments tend to rescind on difficult policies but this one has actually  tried to do something about this particular issue. Even though it could be argued that what they are doing is too little too late.

So what the hell is an unelected, unrepresentative judge doing saying the recently imposed migrant cap is "illegal". For Christ's sake nobody elected this pompous elitist bastard, so how the hell can he overrule the policy of a legitimately elected government? (See Here)

When it comes to the crunch, we don't have a real democracy anymore. It has been subsumed by a tangled self serving elite who can veto at whim, and direct at their pleasure, what the government does.

The elected, democratic parliament of this country must reassert its authority.

Or ten years down the road there really will be trouble.

You have to ask: What the hell is going on?

Drug Laws and Politicians

It is a pity Bob Ainsworth did not have the courage of his convictions about drug law reform when he was in office. (Telegraph Report Here).

Instead he sat in a government that buckled to the whim of the press, played to the gallery and crassly reversed policy on drug law reform. Finally his almer-mater Gordon Brown went on to sack Professor Nutt for his inconvenient though scientifically based views.

All this and not so much as a squeak out of Bob Ainsworth.

You have to ask if any of our politicians are really up to the job of making  informed decisions on reforming drug law. Especially after they have now packed the ACMD (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs) with yes-men and other assorted non scientists.

If anyone should have influence on this matter it is exactly the type of people Bob Ainsworth and his pals sacked that we should be listening to. (Guardian Article on David Nutt here)

Perhaps we should pay more regard to people like the Independant Scientific Committee On Drugs rather than spineless politicians out for a bit of quick publicity.

Professor David Nutt's blog is HERE It makes interesting reading.

In our society anyone who sells alcohol needs a license, needs to be approved by a magistrate and must be regarded as an upstanding citizen. Because of this the very severe damage that can be caused by alcohol is mitigated.

Yet to sell illegal soft/hard drugs exactly the opposite criteria are required. Any form of scum-bag can set up shop. Illegal he/she may be, but with no competition (except from other scum-bags) they can sell whatever they like.

It is no wonder that our society is a mess.

There is very little trade in illegally brewed/distilled alcohol because a known and safe source is available. People don't buy dodgy booze so criminals have no market.

Legalise the lot. Tax them, regulate them and use the money to mitigate the problems - Cut out the criminals.

You know it makes sense.

Once Upon a Russian Blonde

My friendly trusting gullible little English compatriots, I have a fairy tale for you.

Once upon a time, in a very old and crumbling land lived a large jovial bearded man. A politician non-the-less. This rather fat but happy individual was so important he was charged with looking after the defences of that crumbly land.

Like all the great good and extremely well fed, he spent long, long hours filling out expense claims. In those odd moments when he was not form filling, or at lunch, or berating his peers for something or the other, he managed to spend time on the more trivial aspects of government. Like nuclear deterrence or procuring advanced weaponry.

But like the other Great Good and Extremely Well Fed, he needed assistants. People in trusted positions. Dare I say, people charged with the safety and security of the nation.

Now, the foolish and paranoid would insist on those aids being security cleared nationals of this crumbly land. But Oh! That is just sooooo politically wrong. Sooooo incorrect.

If you want to show the world exactly how "globalised" you are, you hire willing and pretty foreigners. Even foreigners from countries that not so long ago were mortal enemies.

Prime candidates among these foreigners are attractive young blonde Russian girls. Maybe even one called Katya.

Of course you can tell they can be trusted, just by looking at them. You can always trust a sweet innocent blonde Russian girl. Especially with the nations secrets.

But could her loyalty really be to her Motherland?

Could she be a spy?

No. No. Nooooo. That would be just too silly.

After all, things have got so run down in this crumbly old land that other countries only spy on it for sport.

And pretty young Russian girls simply don't do that sort of thing.

But some foolish members in crumbly lands MI5 have taken it all too seriously.

Even though the fat politician whined and complained and declared his pretty aid innocent, the cruel zealots in the security service still arrested her and will soon send her back to Russia.

Goodbye Katya.

I expect you did a really first class job.

It is a pity you are not taking your bumbling incompetent ex-boss with you.

A Special Subservience

Wiki Leaks has laid bare the true nature of the so called UK-USA Special Relationship.

My grubby little Englander readership may well find these revelations somewhat shocking. But I have to tell you that you are hearing just a fragment, a fraction of the truth. I gather that, at the moment, there are more D notices flying about than cruise missiles.

Even so there is some brutally accurate commentary. Take this article. It ends with a starkly accurate assessment of the the so called special USA-UK relationship. [I quote]

But the underlying message of all this is that the relationship is defined in this way and if, or probably more likely when, the day arrives when the Brits cannot or will not offer so much, they will find that the relationship they still regard as "special" will be very much more ordinary.

For the last sixty years this unnatural and one sided loyalty has slowly seen the corrosive and debilitating subservience reduce and diminish our country. As each year passes , the usefulness of the UK to the Americans reduces. The UK supporters get ever more hysterical and sycophantic in their promotion of this doctrine.

Undoubtedly some Americans have been, and will continue to be our friends. But others, like Hilary Clinton only see us as a diplomatic cash cow, to be milked and loathed.

One day the milk will stop. Then do not expect anyone, especially the likes of Hilary Clinton to ride to our assistance.

A Strange Wind Turbine Morality

 Well, the night was lost. The council planning department had originally recommended rejection. But the councillors, after a barrage innuendo, superstition and false moral outrage decided to allow the wind turbine application to proceed.

The supporting groups had a clever coordinated and focussed mantra. There was running theme through the whole of their speeches.  A bogus child centric theme was pushed and pushed. Non-existent moral high ground was claimed again and again. The moral turpitude of the massive subsidies was brushed under the carpet. No mention was made of the sheer incapability of these things to meet our needs. Only rosy and hopelessly inaccurate figures on carbon reduction and noise output were made. Landscape impact was denied or glossed over.

The average common folk who actually lived in the area were outnumbered and out spoken. Unaccustomed to public speaking their defences flowed uneasily. Other speakers against the turbines tried to show how ineffective wind turbines are. Others showed that they were incapable of addressing  our real energy needs. But all to no avail. The motion was passed 6-3.

One small victory for stupidity

One more step on the slippery slope.

More of the average folk, their homes and families, sacrificed to the false god of Green.

A Final Note:

NIMBY?

Actually it will not affect me. I don't live in East Stoke. So why do I bang on about this?

Because I care.

I care about our environment and I care that we should not fall into stupid dead end traps that will deprive our kids and grand kids of a decent life. Neither do I want to line the pockets of the shysters who push these things. Outside of certain niches, wind turbines are a hopeless dead end. In years to come this will become painfully apparent, but by then it will be too late for the people of East Stoke.

As for being a NIMBY. If you like labels, then sure. Not In My Back Yard. Not In My Neighbours Back Yard and certainly Not In My Kids Back Yard.

Football, Honesty and Consequences

So the English World Cup bid was resoundingly rejected. It looks like the bid has been publicly punished for the publicity and scandal surrounding corruption in FIFA. With just the English vote and one other vote from the FIFA board, a clear message was sent. FIFA were not happy with the publicity surrounding their corrupt officals .

There has been lots of talk about whether the exposes on the corruption in world football should have been airbrushed or re-scheduled.  But to do so would have been to quietly collude with the fraudsters.

Honesty, like freedom has a heavy price and sometime severe  consequences.

At least we have done the right thing.

And look on the bright side - It will save us 15 Billion quid.

Wind Turbines in a Pit

Now, where would you build a wind turbine?

If you were a corporate utility company slavering over the subsidies then I suppose the answer is:

Anywhere you can.

Take one proposed location in the middle of Purbeck. (Incidentally the clue is in the name.)

It is called (wait for it.....)

Masters Pit.

Actually  it is a quarry . In places it is up to 25 meters deep. 

Though Masters Pit is technically just outside the AONB (Area Of Natural Beauty), by a matter of a few hundred yards, these monstrosities will blight the landscape for miles.

The fact that the pit ( sorry ..quarry) is up to 25 meters (75 feet) deep has not phased Infinergy. They simply plan to chock up these four monstrosities on a mixture of old stone tailings and probably any other crap they can lay their hands on.

So really these monsters will not be a mere 125 meters to the top of the blade but actually anything up to 150m from existing ground level. (that is approximately 487 feet)

If it were not for the massive subsidies (almost £ for £ on the electricity production) then they would be totally unviable.

How long are we going to put up with greedy utility companies trampling over our precious countryside so they can stick their noses in the subsidy trough? 

Really, if these things could repay their damage with meaningful quantities of use-able electricity (say a meagre 100MW) then maybe they would be worth a closer look. But with a derisory average (and intermittent) output of 0.575 MW per turbine they simply squander valuable financial resources that could be used to fund electricity generation that really works. 

Or even, dare I say it, the subsidy could fund effective programs to reduce energy demand.

But of course, that is the LAST thing any utility company wants to encourage! 

The money being squandered on these hopelessly ineffective monstrosities could be used so much more effectively. Once this money has been spent  it will be gone. With little (except a fat dividend) to show for it.

Tomorrow there is going to be a public meeting followed by a council vote on this planning application. The meeting is in Wareham (at Purbeck School 7.00pm). 

The council planning department have quite rightly recommended rejection.  If you are reading this in Purbeck, try and come along and help fight this obscenity. 

Homes and Wind Turbines

So how many “homes” does a wind turbine power?

We all know that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. But there is also lies, greed and manipulation of the truth.

Say you want to desecrate a large area of rural England with wind turbines the height of Salisbury cathedral. You know that these turbines are only viable because of the massive subsidy you get. You know they produce next to nothing in the way of useful electricity. But you need to con the gullible, the wishful thinkers and the Luddites into supporting your ruthless avarice. What do you do?

You make it look homely, warm, benign even.

You describe the output in terms of how many “homes” your monstrosities will power.

But of course, you are, as ever, economical with the truth. Especially when it comes to using simplification to airbrush out the real truth of the matter.

Take this site which offers lots and lots of propaganda for a proposed four turbine complex deep in rural Purbeck. They state their turbines are rated at 2.3 MW. That is 9.2MW in total.

Sounds impressive.

To be fair, they realise that no one is conned by these maximum rating figures.

So when they calculate the number of “homes” they can provide for, they appear to use the pathetic average of one quarter of the boiler-plate rating. In other words each turbines real rating is an average of 0.575 MW. But they do not display this figure. It is after all derisory.

If they then take the average household consumption of electricity as the figure given here   they can offer up that their assertion that this four turbine carbuncle on the face of Purbeck will fuel 5000 homes.

Sounds good. 5000 homes Hmm-mm. Wholesome.

But there is a problem. In fact there are two problems.

The first problem is that while the average output of these things really will be about 0.575MW each and the average requirement for a household really is about 600W, the figure blatantly avoids the demographics of household electricity use.

Households use their energy mainly in well defined time bands. For example their use at 3am is small yet in the early afternoon is at least a couple of kilowatts.

(graph from mpoweruk.com )

Simply put, the average turbine energy output is inadequate at times of peak demand (by at least a factor of four) and at other times the power they produce is unneeded and wasted. These four turbines are not capable of meeting anywhere near the day to day demands of 5000 homes.

But it gets worse.

Wind turbines are governed by the vagaries of the wind and the wind is governed by the certainties of Physics. The power of the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. The harder it blows the more energy there is in the wind.

The result of this is that half of the energy in the wind is delivered to the wind turbine in just 15% of the time.

So half of their annual power output will arrive in a total period of less than 60 days. So not only are they intermittent they are also peaky. There will be times when they are maxing out and demand is low

(graph - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power Note the graph is the total wind energy and frequency of occurrence at different wind speeds. The throughput is calculated through an imaginary 100 meter disk. Energy data recorded 2002 Lee Ranch facility USA)

If you take out this brief peak period and concentrate on their output over the majority of the year, we find that the 300 day average output of these things falls to:

365/300 * 0.575/2 = 0.35 MW per turbine.

That is 1.4MW for the whole 4 turbine farm.

So most of the time they can provide only an average “home” load for 2300 homes.

But do not forget that is the averaged household demand NOT the day to day demand which is itself peaky though predictable. During many defined periods of the day the average homes will use 2+ KW.

During these times these things, on average over the 300 days, then can only provide for about 600 "homes".

The ability of wind turbines to provide reliable energy for “homes” is overstated, deceptive and fuelled by massive amount of wishful thinking.

I often use the old now redundant small nuclear station up the road from me in Winfrith as a comparison for Wind Energy.

This old nuclear station regularly and routinely provided 62MW to the national Grid. No peaking, no troughs, It never stopped because of the weather.

If you do the maths in the same way the wind industry does, ( i.e. “homes”), this old reliable nuclear reactor provided power for well over one hundred thousand “homes”.


Of course the other big con in all this "homes" nonsense is that household electricity is only 30% of the total demand. The rest is split across industry and services.

So why are we building these useless wind farms? Why are we desecrating our country-side?

Unless you are getting the subsidies, the reasons appear unclear.

Steaming into a Crisis

Today I took an elderly relative down to the local railway station to watch an old restored steam train pass by as it pulled a few hundred enthusiasts on a journey to London.

I am not really into steam but I must admit that these trains do make a evocative and picturesque sight (and hey, a family outing is always welcome!)

After the lumbering monster had passed through, dousing us in steam and soot, the old boy turned to me and smiled.

“In ten years we are going to need all these old relics”.

Regrettably he is probably right.

He knows, I know, and I bloody well hope that you know, that in this country, within ten years, there is going to be a shortfall in electricity generation capacity of crisis levels.

All it will take will be a severe cold snap, or the Russians getting uppity about their gas or one or a number of the old decrepit run down nuclear or coal plants breaking down.

Please, whatever you do, do not be stupid enough to think that wind power is going to get us out of this hole. All the current focus on wind energy is doing is digging us in deeper.

At a time like this we need an energy minister capable of making informed, difficult and decisive decisions. But all we have is Chris Huhne.

At least he has put in motion the construction of half of the new nuclear stations we need, which is a step in the right direction. But he is still wedded to the fairy-land fantasy of using wind power to provide a significant proportion of our power.

This means is that money that really should be allocated to building generating plant (that actually works) is diverted into wind farms so the utilities operating these wind farms can cash in on the subsidies. This money ends up in the coffers and share dividends of the greedy utility companies while the looming crisis gets ever deeper.

With the subsidy, the cost of wind power (an intermittent, unreliable and ineffective power source) is actually not far off double that of other forms of generation. The huge profits to be made on wind farms is crippling re-investment in vital non wind generation plant.

If (or should I say when?) there are power cuts, it will be interesting to see how long the electrified railways can keep going.

Maybe then, our old relics will come in handy.

Steam trains to the rescue? Far fetched? Maybe.

But no more fantastical than the belief that wind power can prevent the energy gap crisis happening, let alone provide a long lasting contribution to out electricity supply.

Wind Turbines: The Subsidy

Few people realise the extent or extravagance of the subsidy given to the large corporate operators of wind turbines.

A recent article in “Private Eye” and reproduced on the DART website here displays the sheer amount of money (your money) being sloshed about.

First, a little seed capital gets slopped in the direction of the land owners.

The traditional reward of 30 pieces of silver for selling out your neighbours is somewhat less generous than what is currently on offer. Today the payment amounts to about £10,000 per turbine per year. So for four turbines, over 25 years, this amount to a cool £1 Million.

While this yearly payment has sometimes reached £17000 per turbine, it is pathetically small when compared to the money that gets funnelled in the direction of the corporate owners of these monsters.

A wind turbine, rated at 2 MW (which averaged over a year actually only produces about 0.5MW/yr) will be paid about £250,000 for the electricity produced . But on top of this there is a subsidy of £220,000. So for a 4 turbine installation, over the 25 year lease period, the operating company will get no less than £22 million in subsidy alone.

Currently, with only a fraction of the planned insanity in place, we are paying over £1 Billion a year in subsidies. (See Here)

That is a guaranteed profit. Paid for by the government. As to the true operating profit, that will be little, nothing or even negative. The operating margin on the electricity produced alone would never be sufficient to finance these turbines.

Truly, the apple on the tree is the subsidy.

The emphasis will not be on producing useful electricity. The emphasis will be on maximising the amount of electricity produced irrespective of whether it is needed or not.

Electricity generated at 3 am (when nobody wants it) gets the same subsidy as electricity generated during peak times. So do not expect the operators to be doing their maintenance other than 9-5. If a turbine breaks down in winter when wind speeds are low, do not expect it to be repaired in a hurry. The chances of noisy turbines ever being replaced with quieter, less environmentally unfriendly versions is nil.

In real power stations the maintenance and repair schedules are ruthlessly based around getting generation back on line to support periods of maximum use. Do not expect this from wind turbine operators, there is no incentive.

For the luxury of feeling “Green” we are actually fuelling inefficient power generation and rip-off electricity utilities. The stupidity of those who queue up to support the likes of Aon, NPower, Centrica and Scottish & Southern beggars belief.

But truly the real evil in all this is the foolish concept that we can force our way to a greener environment by simply throwing money at a technology that has already proven that it is simply not up to the job.

The PIIGs: Who is Next?

Robert Peston may have a funny way of speaking but he does seem to have a good grip on the Euro crisis. He is very pessimistic about the long term outcome. See Here

From the look of it, Portugal is already on the slide with bond yields already at 7% (Irish bond yields are still at over 8% and that is after the bailout package). Obviously those who buy bonds are none too confident that their money is safe and the rate has been cranked up to appeal to their greed rather than common sense.

So at what point do the Germans chuck their hand in?

They, after all are the only reason the whole thing has not collapsed already. Greece and Ireland are the smallest of the sick men of Europe. It has been difficult enough as it is.

God help us all if (say) Spain or Italy went down. If Portugal fails to make it through the next two weeks without holding the begging bowl out I cannot see the Germans continuing to issue blank cheques.

Going back a few months, when this crisis first broke out I picked up a report that Germans were closely examining their high denomination Euro notes. Evidently you can tell which country printed what. The report stated that the rattled Germans were only accepting notes printed in Germany.

I don't expect anything has changed.

Wind Turbines and Spinning Reserve

When the supporters of wind turbines run out of wishful thinking they usually try disparaging the legitimate concerns of those of us who view these ineffective monstrosities with the contempt they deserve.

It has long been pointed out that due to the vaguaries of the wind, there needs to be a backup ready to take over when they stop turning. The latest jolly wheeze our dreamworld compatriots have come up with is that there does not need to be any more backup as there is already enough spinning reserve.

For those who do not know the jargon: We have our power supplied mainly by base load generation. That is power stations running on full load. Nuclear power is particularly good at this. This is then backed up by spinning reserve. This spinning reserve can provide small corrections to the power requirement in which case it is said to go from spinning reserve and into generation. But is there mainly ready to kick in if anything goes wrong, like a major grid failure or power station failure. Spinning reserve power stations are using fuel but providing no electricity. The energy used is dissipated in the cooling towers.

The pro wind turbine lobby assert that as the spinning reserve is bigger than any single power supply unit then it should also be quite capable of coping with any drop of output from wind turbines. On a (very) shallow level that sounds like a good point but really we need to look at what the spinning reserve is there for.

Spinning reserve is an emergency backup. Its  size is calculated to allow the grid to cope with major failure of otherwise reliable and predictable components.

And that is the point. 

The major failure of a power station is a crisis and the spinning reserve is there to ensure there are no power cuts. The spinning reserve currently built into the system is most certainly not there to iron out the erratic output of wind turbines as well. 

If (god forbid) anyone actually builds another of these off-shore wind farm abortions and it then suffered a major grid failure, well: Yes. That is what the spinning reserve is for.  

But  it is most certainly not there to cope with the wind suddenly dropping. If you want to cope with that you need more spinning reserve.

The most shocking aspect of the pro-turbine dreamers is their sheer propensity to be at best, economical with the truth and at worst, lie through their teeth.

One day we will look back on all this lunacy and view it with derision. I just hope and pray that when that day comes the lights will still be working. 

Euro Crisis; Relying on Germany

There was an old 2008 joke: "What is the difference betwen Iceland and Ireland?"
The answer was one letter and six months.

To be fair that 6 months dragged out to be two years but the essence of the joke is brutally true.

Dear Angela Merkel is going to have to butter up her German electorate a lot more to get them to pay for not only Greece, but now Ireland. Maybe soon, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

But let us all remember that hard work is what the Germans are renowned for. So perhaps the rest of Europe will let the Germans do what they do best with their 60 hour weeks and unremitting efficiency. Maybe the dynamic German economy can, under pressure, support virtually the whole of Europe.

Then the bankrupt laggards known collectively as the PIIGS (Portugal, Irelend,Iceland,Greece and Spain) can get back to what they are good at... and go down the pub.

British Gas: Fair Profit Or Exploitation?

Since the peak gas price in 2008 British gas has reduced its prices by 17%. But Since the peak gas price the wholesale price of gas has fallen 40%. See Here

British Gas' profit this year has soared by 98%. In the first half (i.e. 6 months) of 2010 British Gas' profit was £585 million. So it would suggest that their profit this year is going to be in excess of £1 Billion.

All utility companies are in a steady business (and trusted position) of providing our industry and people with a regular vital resource.

So how the hell can one of them suddenly double its profits?

I don't expect any of the other utility companies will go bust any time soon. So there is only source for that huge profit. That source is you, my grubby derided little English consumer.

The whole basis of the privatisation of the utilities was to get rid of a self serving "jobs-worth" monopolistic culture and replace it with a set of responsible and efficient companies.
Their rivalry would guarantee that costs to the consumer were kept down. These new private companies were trusted with providing a strategic national resource. In exchange they were virtually guaranteed a profit.

But today these companies now act as if they are just a multiple set of heads on a monstrous Hydra monopoly. Essentially the Gas and Electric utility industry has all the hallmarks of being an ugly and viciously exploitative hidden cartel.

British Gas and its buddies faff around, pretending there is competition between them. They swap a few hundred thousand consumers to make it look good but they all indulge in conning the public with discounts as summer approaches. Then they hit them with massive rises as winter (and the need for gas) rises. Now Britsh Gas is leading the pack with a shameful 7% rise. The others will follow soon no doubt.

They may be an improvement on the old nationalised cash haemorrhaging relic they replaced. But they are still very far from offering the public a real competitive choice.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with making a profit, even a healthy profit. Especially if you company provides what the customer wants.

But British Gas like the other utility companies do not provide what the customer wants. It provides what the customer needs. They have been given this business on a plate in exchange for acting responsibly.

Double profits in a dynamic cutting edge producer of goods that people queue up to buy is really good.

Double profits in a utility company is a disgusting exploitation of a trusted position.

British Gas - Won't Get Fooled Again

So, my grubby little English mates. Some of you have just got shafted by our friends (of whom we have none) in British Gas.

A 7% rise non the less.

I heard their spokesman whinge on about wholesale gas prices going up. He did not mention the year on year BG profit rise of 98% (yes nearly doubling year on year - see here

Neither did he mention that in the last couple of years, wholesale gas prices have fallen massively from their peak in 2008 (see here)

Needless to say, I expect the other festering corporate monsters that inhabit the Gas and Electricity sector are greedily eyeing your pay-packet as you read this.

What we need here my grotty, snotty fellow little Englanders is either a little less of the bloated monopolistic suppliers running their cosy cartel or more regulation. More regulation, as you probably know is something I would wish to avoid.

Personally I'd go for encouraging another twenty or so companies into the energy market, give them some tax breaks to get them going.

Make the bastards actually compete with each other . Oh how that would hurt!

Get some real competition into a market that currently has all the hall-marks of an ugly and malign Cartel

Housing Benefit vs Houses

Last year 21 Billion was spent on Housing benefit.(see here)

110,000 new houses were built in the same year. (See Here)

The average cost of a home in the UK is about £165,000 (See Here)

So...... (Wait for it)

The cost of Housing Benefit last year could have purchased the ENTIRE new housing stock built in our ravaged little country.

What is more, there would still have been plenty left over for MP's expenses.

Don't figures like that just knock you out!!!!

Love & Kisses

Billothewisp

Housing Benefit costs 500,000 homes

Billothewisp would like to explore some figures with you my grubby little Englander mates concerning Housing Benefit, house building, house prices, rentals, political dogma and how all these thing are sadly related.

Housing benefit is currently £21 Billion per year.
In total, about £75 Billion has been spent on Housing Benefit in the last 5 years.

How many houses would this build?

The average house price (from here) is about £165000

So the last five years "lost" money spent on Housing Benefit could have built just over 450,000 homes. As our "average" house price is inflated by land costs it is easy to see that the cost of Housing Benefit, over the last five years, would have financed the building of at least half a million homes.

How many extra social houses did Gordon Brown, Ed Milliband and friends actually build? According to Radio 4 this morning, there was a net increase of 14000. That though, was in 13 years. But here, to make the maths easy, we will be kind an say they managed it in 5.

So for every 35 houses (lifespan 100 years) they could have built, they built one and blew the cost of the other 34 on short term "down the drain" solutions and social engineering.

One issue raised on Radio 4 breakfast time by a council leader from Kensington and Chelsea (i.e.very expensive area) was that normal working people could no longer afford accommodation in his borough, because they were priced out of the market by the unemployed on housing benefit. So we have this hullabaloo about people being ethically cleansed, when in fact it has already happened. But it is not the unemployed. It is the common working folk who have the audacity to hold down a job and fend for themselves who are the victims.

Then you have to ask why market rent is so high. It does not take a brain surgeon to work out that if you are pumping 21 Billion into the rental market each year then rents are bound to inflate. Artificially inflated rentals then inflate house prices as buy to let landlords buy up low end stock and price the young out of the market.

Then tack on to this the uncontrolled immigration over the last 10 years. (See this site and be appalled at the figures). If the net levels of immigration had stayed the same as they were in the 1980's/early 90's then there would now actually be a surplus of 200,000 homes.

It is an absolutely awful vicious circle.

All because of out of control housing benefit, uncontrolled immigration and essentially long term bad government.

What an absolute utter mess.

Something Fishy with Foreign Aid

Billothewisp is perplexed. George Osborne has brought a heavy axe down on the grotesque cancer of public spending excess. But there is one exception. Foreign aid is to grow by 37%. Notice dear readers not so much a squeak about this out of Labour, SNP, Plaid, or any of the others. The silence is deafening.

Furthermore, reporting of the many billions increase in foreign aid has been almost non existent (with the odd notable exception see here.) Do not expect any expose from the BBC any time soon.

There is something not quite right here.

This simply does not fit.

Realistically, any government of any colour would rationally cut the foreign aid cloth to fit the economics of the day. But that is not what's happening.

A 37% increase, especially by a government in a challenging economic situation is simply bizarre.

Especially when it is an open secret that 80% of African foreign aid ends up in the Swiss bank accounts of the gangster rulers. While India and Pakistan use it to pay indirectly for their nuclear weapons programmes.

There has to be a reason, probably a dark reason why this is happening.

Is it some form of Dangeld? (see here) Or what?

I cannot figure it out. But to suggest it is the magnanimous gesture from our Great and Good for no reason other than righteousness is trite.

There is something seriously wrong about this.

We are not being told the truth.

BBC: Whine Whine Whine

Good evening my sour faced little Englander friends. This morning Billothewisp had a nasty scare while driving to work. Just after I had turned on the radio, there was an awful whining noise. It modulated up and down. It would stop for a short while only to restart shortly later.

Cambelt shredded?
Breaks binding?

Perplexed I turned off the radio to try and identify the problem. But immediately I did this the noise stopped.

Puzzled, I turned the radio back on. There it was again!

Finally I realised this intermittent whinnying and whining was not my trusty Ford but a gaggle of overpaid and over fed BBC presenters moaning about they would have to suffer the indignity of reduced claret and caviare rations as the licence fee has been frozen.

Further more, they complained that the BBC would actually have to pay for the foreign broadcasting service. Funny that. I thought that sort of thing was what the licence fee was for. But never mind.

So what exactly was this collection of financially replete individuals whinging about? Evidently the BBC has been “bullied” into the freezing of an over-priced licence fee which could result in a real terms reduction of 16% (essentially due to inflation) over five years.

Hardly compares to what the lads at Redcar have had to put up with does it?
Or the Harrier pilots shortly to be given their P45's for that matter.

But personally Billothewisp was rather shocked at this attack on the BBC. If Billothewisp had been in charge I would guarantee that this freezing of the licence fee simply would not have happened.

Instead Billothewisp would have abolished the licence fee completely. The BBC would be financed directly by the treasury who would, one would hope, demand a level of financial rigour the BBC is blatantly unaware of.

Actually I would also probably also cut their budget by 40%, but that is just me and my nasty streak.

The arcane days of unaccountable gravy trains being able to raise their own particular poll tax should be over.

But OH my God can you think of the amount of whining that would raise?

We would all need ear defenders.

Huhne and Humble Pie

I could crow about Chris Huhne's U turn on nuclear power but I won't. He has after-all, done the decent thing. He has at last abandoned the ridiculous dream world of relying on wind and tidal power and has now ordered 8 new nuclear power stations. See Here

Evidently the fairy-land lunatics in the Liberal party are outraged. Of course they would much rather maintain their bizarre Luddite-ism, even if it means the old and frail dying in the dark and cold.

The only problem is though is that there is still going to be a shortfall. Huhne needs to gather his courage and order at least four more.

Through gross incompetence and hysterical propaganda our own nuclear industry has been allowed to wither on the vine. Once our nuclear industry led the world but now these new power stations are going to rely on French or American expertise.

What a shame.

But at least, we can hope pensioners will not be confronted with power cuts and non working central heating boilers in ten years time.

Liverpool sale blocked by Texas judge

Billothewisp, being a grubby little Englander is without doubt a bit dim.

But please, can someone explain to me in short stubby little words, what the hell an American Judge in Texas has to do with the sale of an English football club? Especially when that sale is being conducted in England under English law?

Am I missing something or what? Or is this just plain unbridled arrogance?

Quango'd at the TSA

OK you grubby semi-literate little Englander chums. Billothewisp is going to tell you how the Great, Good and Extremely Well Fed at the TSA are going that last mile – just for you.

What is the TSA? Funny you should say that. That was my first thought when I came across it.

Well, you fellow stupid little Englanders, its the Tenants Service Authority.

What do they do? Uh, well. I'm still working on that one. have a look at them Here

But believe me it involves eating a great deal of lunch.

It must be truly hell but, just to make sure they can cope with all this forced eating they are given some small tokens in the way of bonuses as well.

Further more, they have obviously also been charged with distributing a great deal of of the quantative easing money to the poor and needy.

And what a better way than packing it into their pay packets?

Neither are they secretive about their pay/bonuses or expenses. They actually appear to think they are above reproach! see it all Here

So you grubby little Englanders, are you wondering if the job will last out to the end of the week? Maybe you are thinking about economising on the £2.50 bacon butty you have for lunch. Well, here is what these Great, Good and Extremely Well Fed folk at the TSA have to put up with.

Are you sitting comfortably? (or at least stood well clear of breakable objects?)

Here are a few of the snippets from their pay and expenses.

Pay:
Chief Executive: 2010 pay £165,000.

But to be fair that is only a miserly rise of £8162 on the previous year – that is a derisory 5% (how much did you get?)

This noble individual was only awarded a further £11,000 in bonuses a massive drop from the previous years £17531.

As you may remember the Great, Good and Extremely Well Fed in our Mother of Parliaments were recently involved in a little tryst over expenses.

But the Chief Executive has no worries because, just by chance, he has decided to waive his bonus this year. Of course, there is absolutely no relation between the two, or the pay rise.

Really. You have to ask.

How does he cope?

Even worse off are the four executive directors three of them only get £125,000 and one poor soul only gets £100,000. Their bonuses range from £5000 for the £100K wage victim, through to £9479 for the less financially challenged directors.

The chief executive does though have a personal lacky assistant because he has so, so, so much to do.
She earns a more modest £29000 up by a mere 30% on the previous year. Although to be fair this is around the plebian pay level of mere minions like you and me.

Then of course, there are the pension benefits......(have a look). Even the Great Good and Extremely Well Fed grow old and of course, they have got used to an extravagant lifestyle. It would be cruel to require a little modesty in their retirement.

The TSA is less straight forward about their “other ranks” pay. So it is a good job that lunch appears to come free.

Take the published expenses for “lunch”. These people are at least consistent with £70.00 per claim being the apparent average (hey! that one hell of a lot of bacon butties).

Then there are the grace and favour lunches where other Great and Good foot the bill. But really, honestly, somebody has to do it.

It is only like buying your mate a bacon butty because he has just lost his job. It is just 25 times more expensive. Thats all.

Needless to say the expenses per individual are hundreds and hundreds of pounds per month. But somebody has to do this job. Aren't you pleased that these fine follows have taken on the challenge?

After all, my plebian proletariate English mates, I don't expect you have to even bother with such claims!

Think of all the expense form filling, indigestion and extra arterial deposits.

Oh you lucky, lucky little English proles! You are so fortunate to be able to leave this sort of thing to your quango betters.

But what is this I hear? The TSA is being axed!
But, what it did was so important!
So vital!
So absolutely crucial to the well being of the nation! (whatever it was)

When this particular little TSA train finally hits the buffers, just be careful my English buddies.

Be careful that you don't get drowned in the spilt gravy.

Packaging Quango – Wrapped up

Our coalition chums have axed 177 Quangos.

There are those who will regard this as a tragedy.

But most of us will regard it as a bloody good start.

There are believe it or not about another 800 to go. Go through the list it makes interesting reading. See Telegraph Here

Seriously. Look at some of them. Google them. Find the inevitable highly expensive web site. Try and figure out what they actually did. Push your way through the fine sounding words and actually look for what they really did for the millions upon billions spent of them and their ilk.

I came to the following conclusion:

For the last ten years, somebody has been having a laugh.

Talking about a laugh, I hear Ed Miliband is the new labour leader. He may not be quite such a pompous lunatic as his alma mater (Tony Benn) but there are disturbing similarities. We can only hope that the foaming left wing rabies may not have fully infected the new potential leader in-waiting.

Otherwise we may all end up with a seriously unfunny political catastophe.

England Erased Revisited

Ana the Imp has set me off. (see Ana the Imp Here)

Back in the dark days of 2002, John Prescott was planning to "regionalise" England as some sort of final solution to the West Lothian problem.

Some earnest chap wrote in and complained about the fact that he had no opportunity of expressing himself as English on the Census form. Just about every other ethic/cultural/national was there to be chosen from except English.

Luckily a copy of the 1984 style reply is still around. See link - (Prescotts reply courtesy English Ed)

But I thought I would share the following little gem from this reply directly with you. (I don't see why I should be the only one with boiling blood pressure.)

[quote]
Firstly, I assume you are referring to the census form that has no facility for stating English nationality.This is because there is no such nationality as English as laid down by various acts of parliament and accession.
[unquote]

But don't stop there. Read all of it. Then think how lucky we are we still have a country at all.

An English Void

I'm am taking short detour from my whimsical tirade against extraterrestials, no-win no-fee lawyers and industrial strength cider.

One of the blogs I follow (see Ana the Imp Here) has made such a good post on the subject of the denial of an English Identity I am just going to refer you to it (above) and then retire to a safe distance.

Don't just sit there click the link now!

Billothewisp to sue the Air force

Yes my dingy dirty downbeat little Englander mates.

Billothewisp is suing the Royal Air Force.

Why you may ask.

Well as you know last week on his way back from the pub, Billothewisp was abducted by aliens from the planet Tharg.

There he was brutally mated with three seven foot Amazons.

Believe it or not, Billothewisp became a sexual plaything.

Exploited for the enjoyment of a set of green one eyed bastards who mocked every aspect of his sexuality.

Now I know how those poor abused male porn stars feel. Just to make matters worse I now also have a nasty little rash.

Finally, just for a laugh, those one eyed green monsters look a jack hammer to my head. The headache lasted for days.

The scars will never heal.

I know there are some of you doubting bastards who reckon I simply got hammered on “Old Rosie” (the cider of champions) and then got lost in a field when I needed to go and take a leak on my way home.

Well, all I can say to you lot is if that is the low opinion you hold me in you can all bugger off when I get my 100 grand payout.

Buy your own bleeding “Old Rosie”.

I telling you the aliens were real. And I sticking to it. Morever that is what I've told the wife.

So for good reason Billothewisp is suing the RAF.

I've paid sheds loads of money in tax. At least I should expect Aliens to be intercepted before they get to park up in a Dorset field and abduct the locals.

So where were they?

Combing their bleeding handle-bar moustaches in the officers mess no doubt.

Billions spent on Euro-fighter Typhoon and a bunch of lousy green eyed monsters descend and kidnap a bloke on his way back from the pub.

Call that defence?

I call it neglect.

I going to do a trawl for some no-win no-fee lawyers. From what I have seen there is absolutely no problem with my claim. There have been other claims that positively make my own claim look average.

So although my life has been absolutely ruined by the inactivity of the RAF I am am confident that a little bit of cash may well make life a little easier. The local landlord is so confident he has already booked two weeks in Benidorm on my potential expanded spending on “Old Rosie”

But this still leaves one little item I have got to sort out.

Anyone know how to deal with that rather embarrassing little rash?

Abducted by Aliens

Dear poisoned, pilfered and plebian little Englander mates. Tonight Billothewisp has a true life horror story about Alien Abduction.

No, I don't mean getting hijacked by Romanian gangsters on the M1. This is the real McCoy.

Abduction by extra-terrestials. Aliens. Little green men.

But even more shocking is who these off-planet kidnapping bastards decided to hijack.

Oh, my grubby little Englander mates! It was me! Last week Billothewisp was abducted by aliens.

It may be difficult to believe, but on his way back from the boozer, Billothewisp was abducted and whisked off to the planet Tharg in the Crab Nebula.

But there was worse to follow.

While held hostage by these green exploitative swine I was forced to mate with three 7 foot Amazonian cheer leaders. (but for Gods sake don't tell the wife).

Then, just for fun, they used a jack hammer to crack into my skull.

After incredible torment and suffering they finally beamed me back to Earth.

I awoke next day, face down in a field not far from from the boozer. The excruciating pain in my head was absolute proof of the aliens cruel intent.

I can categorically state that this had nothing to do with the six pints of “Old Rosie” (the cider of Champions) imbibed the previous night.

Believe me my dishellived and disowned little Englanders. If it can happen to me it can happen to you.

You believe me, don't you?

Well, of course you do.I expect something similar may well have happened to you too.

Here we are. All victims. And not a no-win no-fee lawyer in sight.

But I will fully back up your story if you need to explain a non-appearance to a loved one or spouse.

Of course it would be good if you could add weight and substance to my tale of woe.

Especially as the wife is now making me sleep in the shed for the rest of the week.

So it would be really great if you could explain to her how these alien abductions are in fact real. Maybe tell her how they are covered up as part of a government conspiracy.

But for Gods sake remember to leave out the bit about the 7 foot Amazons.

Redcar Teeside - Positive News?

It looks like the Indian owned Corus Steel is selling Redcar (Teeside Cast Products) to a Thai steelmaking company (SSI)

See this link BBC Report

This is some really good news for the people of Teeside.

It is a shame that this is simply one foreign corporation exchanging ownership with another
but at least it looks like it will mean that Redcar will re-open and re-start production.

I still have my worries about why we allow our people and stategic industries to be ping-ponged to and fro by the the likes of TATA, Kraft and others.
But SSI do at least plan to re-open the plant, which is more that the TATA owned Corus could manage.

We will see the people of the North-East will get back to doing what they are superbly good at.

Heavy engineering and steel making.

I really, really, really hope this works out well.

Good luck to my friends in the North-East.

Globalisation: The Stealer of Skills

OK my snarly gnarly little English illiterati. Here the next dose of why Globalisation is bad for you, me, and the rest of the world-wide Hoi Polloi** (see note below).

Put that bottle of cider down and pay attention.

The easy way to illustrate this is to give you a couple of recent examples regarding the theft of skilled workers from the third world and the corresponding theft of jobs from England

---

One of the great obscenities perpetrated by the last Labour government was the bribery and theft of trained medical professionals from the third world.

What! I hear you exclaim. The Labour party indulging in a spot of slavery? Well, Almost.

Starting in the late 90's teams of recruiters from local health authorities were flown to places like India, South Africa and the Philippines with the sole aim of stealing the medical staff away to the UK.

Nobody would dispute that these individuals were a great gain for the UK.

I would also hope that nobody would dispute that stealing them away from their own nations was not only immoral but also a catastrophe for those Hoi Polloi** left doctor-less and nurse-less back home.

Why did the ruling elite do this?

Because it was cheaper than training our own medics.

It got them out of a short term hole of their own making regarding impractical promises they made about the NHS.

Simple.

Now of course, it is a long term problem. But they don't care anymore. Another ruling elite has to pick up the pieces.

It also gave them leverage in keeping down wages. It enhanced their control over the NHS at the expense of the medics.

I am sure that in the future the Labour party's addiction to globalisation and its immoral theft of these medics will be regarded much in the same way as we regard slavery today.

To be fair there were rumblings of discontent from the odd senior (though soon to be junior) member of the Labour Party (like Clarles Clarke)

The other skilled worker obscenity we will be looking at today is the abuse of skills within the third world.

An engineer or technician is a precious resource in any country. But today many multi-lingual highly educated individuals in the third world will be found answering the phone and dealing with Mr Angry from Cheam and his missing direct debit.

Meanwhile the people in this country that used to do this job sit at home watching the afternoon telly waiting to sign on again. Their prosperity and self reliance ruined.

The foreign engineer, temporarily gets paid more than he would doing his proper job. Meanwhile his skills rot and the country that trained him goes without.

Long term nobody gains.

Except the fat cats.

OK?

Sermon over. Back to the cider.

**NOTE
I know you lot are, like me, a bit dim. (John Prescott told me this. So it must be true.)

So I need to explain the term Hoi Polloi.

Hoi Polloi is a Greek expression meaning the many, the masses, etc. It is usually used in private by the Great Good and Extremely Well Fed. They use it as a sneeringly derogatory term when describing people like you and me, my plebian proletariate mates.

Occasionally they get carried away and use it in public, so if you hear it, now you know what it means.

So theres a little lesson for you.

Of course Dioclese should know this already. It is not because he is brighter than the rest of us its just that as a short term past resident of Greece he must have heard the remark delivered about himself as he queued up every night to buy his industrial strength Metaxa.

An Outbreak of Common Sense

Many of the Great Good and Extremely Well Fed are moaning about the lack of commitment that has been shown to the victims of the Pakistani floods.

So why is the level of support so low?

Why are we not providing significant support from either the government or from the general population?

Cast you mind back to the Tsunami of 2004. Initially, that catastophe also went unaddressed. At the start the government grudgingly donated a derisory amount of aid. The sum was actually soon outstripped by personal donations. The government under Gordon Browns direction tried to hold its position. But public outrage dictated otherwise.

Today, the the lack of public support for the Pakistani disaster is primarily due to the economic constraints upon the country at this time. This is ampified by the fact that Pakistan spends £2 billion a year on nuclear weapons, and has been actively seen as supporting those that are murdering British troops in Afganistan.

But in both the Tsunami disaster and the Pakistani floods the government has found itself in a position where it simply did not have any money left in the coffers. The reason for this is that most of the Foreign Aid budget has always been squandered on African gangsters and other odious members of the worlds corrupt elites. We have always heavily contributed to the UN Central Emergency Relief Fund. This fund is supposed to deal with crises like the Pakistani floods but it is arguably worse than useless.

At least now, the coalition government appears to (at last) have smelt the coffee and is axing some of the multitude of commitments that have previously soaked up the foreign aid budget like a sponge.
See Channel 4 here

Morover, (shock and horror) we will be targetting aid to help extract us from the mess of Afganistan. See Guardian Here

Maybe in future years we will not be buying Lear jets for the corrupt bully-boys who rule the third world. Perhaps we will have enough kept back so we can immediately respond to a calamity like the Pakistani floods.

Maybe if there is not a disaster in a particular year, then maybe, just maybe, we could spend it on our own poor and needy instead.

Globalisation: The Real Enemy.

Dear fellow disowned and derided little Englanders

Billothewisp is going to have a rant (or occasional series of rants) about Globalisation. This is the first.

Today I am just setting the stage with an outline of this wrecking ball of an idealogy.

I promise to interperse this stuff with some more digestable (or at least drinkable) posting or I, like you, will probably have a haemorrhage.

Globalisation

On a personal level, we all hold self reliance and self sufficiency in high esteem. But on a national level, these same attributes are villified and undermined.

Globalisation dictates that a national self reliance is regarded as something to be aborred and Free Trade (which is anything but) should fill the gap.

Nationally all our political parties are beholden to the great god of Globalisation. They appear oblivious to the damage and distress it causes to many societies, not just our own.

There is opposition to globalisation but most of the anti-globalisation movement is firmly entrenched on the more lunatic fringes of the left.

Billothewisp does not think firebombing MacDonald's is going to solve anything. Neither does he think that the average member of the Global Justice Movement has so much as a clue as to what is really going on.

Globalisation is a semi-random methodology that entrenches vested interest. The Great Good and Extremely Well Fed get ever richer, while the rest of us become ever more serf like in our position.

Globalisation encourages many of the woes we see in the world today.

Examples include:

Skilled Worker Theft
Predatory pricing
Unemploymnet
Sweat shop labour
mass migration
poverty
false competition
and many others.

To keep these posts to sensible lengths I will keep to one issue/example per post.

The next post will be Skilled Worker Theft.

There. I have said it. Now I feel better. Pass the cider.

England Erased

Good evening my fine fettled fellow little Englanders.

Billothewisp has a request.

I would like to try and compile some documentation on the airbrushing out of the English identity and the villification of Englishness.

My first port of call was going to be the notorious letter that hailed from the offices of John (pass the pies) Prescott in 2002.

You may remember it. If you don't, make sure you are sat down or at least stood well clear of breakable objects before reading the following snippet (all I can currently find....)

Ready?

[quote]
…there is no such nationality as English as laid down by various acts of Parliament and accession. Persons born in the United Kingdom are citizens of the United Kingdom and are therefore British/English.
[unquote]

Now, I really need the full text of this letter, vile and poisonous though it is. If you have a copy could you attach a link to it as a comment to this post?

Thanks

Billothewisp

Taxing Empty Containers

OK my bankrupt and poverty stricken English compatiots. As you may know Billothewisp is no fan of taxation. But today he has obviously had a little too much sun (or cider, or both) and he wishes to suggest a shiny new tax to help out our financially deprived exchequer.

While I can see some of our control freakery ruling classes jumping up and down in excitement on the possibility of stiffing the average Joe Bloggs for a bit more of his hard earned dosh, they may not like it so much after they have read what it is.

There are, of course, brethren who will despair at the mere thought of yet another tax. They can give me a good kicking later. The cider will ensure I don't feel a thing. But I digress, back to Taxing containers.

One of the main avenues ruthless globalists are using to stiff our economy is via the use of sweat shop labour in poor foreign countries. In these countries their ruling elites or "Great, Good and Extremely Well Fed" get ever richer while the slaves employees get paid a pittance. But the goods produced by these globalists are priced too highly or are inappropriate for local population.

We end up in the bizarre situation where our own people are on the dole because no business can compete with the sweat shops. But in the countries involved in this sweat shop labour there is a shortage of economical goods for the local population. This because the fat cats can make much more money out of shipping it to the UK than they can by doing the right thing and supporting their own people.

This abuse is made even worse due to the containerisation revolution that has taken place in the shipping industry. As an example, it is considerably cheaper to ship a television to the UK from China than it is to ship that same television 100 miles up the motorway from the port to the supply depot.

We need to level the playing field. One way of doing this would be to place an tax on each container coming into the country full and leaving empty. This would also help our exporters by inducing a market where shippers actually competed to fill their containers. At the moment most cannot be bothered. If a container leaves the country full of goods then the tax would be neutral for the shipper. If a container comes in empty (unheard of) no tax is paid and VAT is waived if it leaves full. At the moment most containers come in full and then simply ship fresh air out of our ports.

There are approximately 5.5 million TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) deep sea (i.e. non European) container traffic movements a year. If you assume that 4.5 million of those are shipping air back to their point of origin and you charged a £500 tax per empty deep sea container leaving the country, you would bring in £2.25 Billion. It would also incentivise shippers to get UK goods shipped out cheaply.

Just an idea. Now let the kicking start.

The Trouble with VAT

Cast your mind back my despised little Englander mates. To when the last group of "Those Who Should Be Obeyed", panicked and adopted the ludicrous concept of dropping VAT by 2.5%.

As if that was ever going to make people stampede to the shops.

It did though cost a shedful of money. Not only that, it had no positive effect on employment within the small businesses.

Now of course the latest group of "Great Good and Extremely Well Fed" plan to raise VAT to 20%.

Granted, it is an easy hit. A way of raising a considerable amount of money in a short time. "As is" this rate increase will probably also have little effect on employment levels.

But VAT does have a big affect on employment. Especially within the small business sector. But this is due to the VAT Registration Threshold.

The VAT Threshold is based on the turnover of a business. If a business has a turnover of £70K or more it must register for VAT. This means that any bill the business issues will be inflated by 20% (i.e. the VAT). However this will be off-set by the business being able to reclaim VAT it has paid to its suppliers.

So how does this effect employment in small businesses?

Take a plumber working as a sole trader. Say his turnover (that's not profit... that's everything) is £68K. He does not have to register for VAT. No VAT registration means he has to absorb the VAT on the goods he supplies but does not have to charge 20% on his labour. As his labour will account for probably 2/3rds of the final turnover, he can charge less (or make more profit) than another plumber with a turnover of £71K.

There is a distinct disincentive to go through the VAT threshold. If you are going to breach it then you need to do it in style (aka turnover £150K etc.).

Now let us assume that our plumber decides to expand and wants to employ a labourer. Automatically the plumbers turnover inflates by the wages paid to the additional employee. The plumber goes through the VAT threshold and now (as well as paying the labourers wages) has to increase his bills by 20%.

The labourer will have to bring in a great deal more work to make his employment viable. In essence it make much more sense for the plumber to leave the labourer on the dole and to take a holiday when his turnover gets too close to the VAT threshold.

This could be fixed by raising the registration threshold to (say) £100K. It would encourage small enterprises (like our plumber) to expand and to do that he would then require the labourer to help him. Multiply that by (say) 300,000 small businesses across the country and you see the affect.

In the cash straitened time the big question is how much would this cost the exchequer? I think the answer is very little. One of the big savings is the labourer is no longer on the dole (and he is paying taxes) also there is the enterprise affect. As he has expanded once, maybe our plumber will hire more people and risk going go through the VAT threshold. But now it won't hurt so much. Relative to his expanded business, the hiring of extra staff is not so monumental.

So raising the VAT threshold could possibly take 300,000 people off the dole maybe more.

Seems like a good idea to me.