Thunder, lightning and heavy rain as we drove Grandson back home this afternoon. Nothing out of the ordinary as thunderstorms go, which as far as I know are not a new or even a recent phenomenon.
It's been quite warm over the past few days too. Again, as far as I know warm days in July are not a new or even a recent phenomenon for the northern hemisphere. Yet look at the Met Office and its warning systems.
Heat-health watch level 2 - Alert and Readiness.
As always there is probably a head-softening political angle related to climate change and energy policies, but sometimes I just think we're living in Wussland.
5 comments:
Its a combination of factors:
1) The increased infantilisation of the public - the public are treated like a bunch of idiots who need to be protected from their own folly at all times. Which to be fair is in fact true to some extent due to the destruction of the education system. Vast swathes of the public are indeed so stupid, or rather uninformed about the realities of life, that they would (and still often do despite being warned) do stupid things in less than normal weather without realising the consequences.
2) The increased use of legal remedies if something goes wrong. If your house got flooded 30 years ago, that was just a fact of life. Now someone is always to blame, and the State is as good a target for speculative legal compensation claims as any, having deep taxpayer funded pockets. So some of these warnings are an @rse covering exercise.
3) The massive growth in quangos means there are vast bureaucracies out there with very little to do most of the time, so in order to make themselves look important and not be be considered ripe for cuts they will make the most of every little thing they can to look busy and necessary.
4) The necessity to make as much ballyhoo as possible about 'extreme weather' as part of the ongoing Global Warming/Climate Change concept that is being thrust down our throats.
Mix and match those four and you get what we see today - the State making out that weather that we see every year (its hardly got to 30 degrees C for Gods sake!) is somehow most unprecedented, and dangerous, and we poor stupid mortals should all thank Big Brother State for protecting us from it. And not question the motives of the State or its employees in any way whatsoever.
Of course, you are right about the government's preoccupation with globule worming, and how they can make sure that the power companies get their customers eventually at the price they want, after everyone has switched twice!
Sobers - "they would (and still often do despite being warned) do stupid things in less than normal weather without realising the consequences."
There is also a tendency to go the other way such as plastering kids with sunblock whenever the sun peeps out from behind a cloud.
Michael - yes, I found switching makes little or no difference. It's probably why we are encouraged to do it.
Lawyers; risk assessment for compensation claims and expense of defending them (plus paying for the legal aid for the "claimant"), "better safe than sued". Any business run by lawyers wouldn't do anything, any business run by accountants would be sold.
Sackers - isn't the UK run by lawyers and accountants?
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