Vanity Mirrors

Huge row as giant 2,000-acre solar farm to be built overlooking King Charles's Highgrove

James Gray, the Conservative MP for North Wiltshire, opposes the plans.

On his website he said: "Of the ten largest solar parks in England, eight are in our beloved county...We have 42 operational solar farms with a further 12 under planning or construction, nearly all in the north of the county.

"They cover 3,000 acres, which is more than any other county in England...

"And now we have an absolutely outrageous application for vast new solar parks under the misleadingly rustic title 'Lime Down Solar Park'.

"It will be 2,000 acres of vanity mirrors stretching from Luckington to Malmesbury, from Sherston to Hullavington, from the M4 to Corston.

They aren't mirrors of course, and they aren't being planned out of vanity, but it's an excellent way to describe them. 

Mr Gray seems to have a solid record of voting against this kind of nonsense, but it doesn't appear to have had any effect on stopping the rot. I'd have voted for him, but it would have ended up as a Conservative vote, not a conservative vote.

Apart from the vanity mirrors issue, this story does highlight a conservative voter's dilemma. Do I still vote for a decent individual who is a member of a failed party? 

A cascade of cans already kicked down the road

Sir Keir Starmer needs to level with voters - concrete change may only come in a second Labour term

While the Labour leader will look towards the local elections as an important staging post on his path to power, he may also be trying to manage expectations of what a future Labour government can do...

But beyond the drama of the Conservative fortunes and the prime minister's fate, what is also emerging in this election campaign is the secondary strap of Sir Keir's 'change' message.

When he says change, what he really means is patience, and that is perhaps the national conversation we are going to be having much more in the run-up to this general election.


If concrete change is only scheduled for a second Labour government, then it isn't easy to see what that "national conversation" would be about. A list of things Sir Keir's regime isn't going to achieve could be compiled now, which seems to leave a significant shortage of conversational material for the next five years.

A list of things Sir Keir's regime isn't going to talk about could also be compiled now, so that won't help the "national conversation" either. I suppose football is one possibility.

The exciting world of Net Zero apartments

Why are North Koreans avoiding the upper floors of newly built apartments?

People living on upper floors have to carry everything they need to their homes, including water drawn from wells and firewood, a source told Daily NK

According to the source, the province began building high-rise apartments in Chongjin five or six years ago on the orders of the central government. But because the apartments have no elevators, residents on the upper floors have a hard time getting up and down. They also lack reliable electricity and water, making them unpopular with locals.

With no elevators, no running water, no central heating and unreliable electricity, it sounds as if North Korea has already ventured into the exciting world of Net Zero apartments. 

Our lot must be watching with great interest.   

April Fool's Day has become invisible

Trump and Republicans unite in fury at Biden after Trans Visibility Day falls on Easter Sunday by chance

Republicans, led by Donald Trump, are sounding off on Joe Biden after he issued a statement recognising Trans Visibility Day becasue [sic] it happened to coincide with Easter Sunday this year.

Hmm - the most visible group in the developed world needs a visibility day.

It's rank incompetence

 

Let us count the number of people who are surprised

A&E waits: Hundreds of patients a week in England may have died unnecessarily

A study found there was likely an excess death for every 72 patients who spent eight to 12 hours in A&E. Nurses say the "crisis" is "taking lives".

More than 250 patients a week in England may have died unnecessarily last year due to very long waits for a bed in A&E, new estimates suggest.

A study by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) suggests patients are put at risk by spending hours in A&E, particularly after a decision has been made to admit them.

Media Dowsing

I’ve been probing the media via what's called media dowsing. It’s a plausible idea where you imagine you are holding two dowsing rods, but these are mental dowsing rods. 

To dowse headlines and general media guff, first relax in a quiet room. Remove all distractions and with those mental dowsing rods ready, quietly scan headlines, articles and advertisements with as little interest as possible. Not too difficult I imagine.

While mentally dowsing the media, make a quiet note of any word or phrase which, in a sense twitches those dowsing rods. For example, here are three sentences I came up with during a recent media dowsing session. Do they offer clues about what lies beneath?

 

1. Rishi Starmer may Rayner his poll lead say Donkey Sanctuary foresight experts during luxury sustainable housing crisis luncheon.

Okay - my first attempt almost makes sense, so there could be hidden depths in there.


2. Exotic mobile astrology jobs up for grabs in a sustainable world of AI teaching beta politicians about the dramatic solar eclipse of human experience.

No.2 is a little better because it seems to mean more than the first attempt, but in chasing that ephemeral meaning it loses something too.


3. Millions of households behind existential battle for record pizza deliveries after maps turn purple when filming begins with optimistic doom.

Could possibly be something in there, but I’m not totally convinced by the whole idea. Yet our media do have a level of shallowness which could still be worth dowsing in search of something deeper.