DutchEnery

Yep, the floodgates have not closed yet it appears. Does that surprise anyone nowadays? Many times it has been said this country is ungovernable, thanks to very bad management, money problems because no-one knows anything about budgeting or keeping proper records. Just to name a few things. So, now we hear yet again how things can turn ape, so to say. Thames Water is in the doldrums. By Jove, this is a virtual monopoly and they managed a debt of some proportions? £14billion and rising like floodwaters? What happened to those who were supposed to check? Of W at? The various government offices? Was everyone sleeping? Or partying? What in all honesty is going on? We are just milch cows it seems. Yet big dividends are paid out. Surely as the only income of the water companies is the payments made by its customers i.e all of the UK population it is an absolute disgrace to understand that dividends have been paid. Plus of course the massive increases in pay and bonuses. It is galling to hear...

The Royal Family has always been a stabilising factor in the life of the United Kingdom. Without it as it has been over the years, this country would not be a world power (although recently world power is a big word with little meaning). But respective failures of the governments  since WW2 have left this island devastated in many ways. Financial and social just to name two. Therefore it is sad to read Prince William, the one of Wales moniker, making a blunder of some proportions. Yes, it sounds as he has joined the fraternity of Word Salad purveyors. He joined on to the Gold Coach or better the bandwagon, of meaningless cr*p. I am sure he is a well-meaning person but by uttering these word salads he is in danger of being lampooned. So, what he has been saying is that homelessness should be eradicated. Yes, indeed and how is that to be done? Ah, he himself is giving up some land in Cornwall to build houses. Indeed. That by itself seems simple and effective but is it? How many hous...

Anyone surprised by the happenings in the world? Especially in Russia? Nah, not really, I am not surprised. Dictators have a limited time-span. They are only in power, projecting their strength, and in the end when they have upset too many sycophants and erstwhile allies they disappear. Putin’s fate was set a long time ago. And if he thinks he will have a lasting epitaph, he can forget that. All that will show on his gravestone will be ‘Here lies Putin, a fool’. Some people have looked at the situation in 1917 with Rasputin (another of the Putin family perhaps?) But all in, what happens in Russia is in some way important. It is a very large country at the moment and as always it is difficult, very difficult to keep a large country together. The real Russia is basically an area that ranges from the old Muscovite grand duchy towards the Baltic Sea, Saint Petersburg. The rest is consisting of empty grass and woodlands interspersed with small towns. Nevertheless these ‘empty’ areas are ric...

There are two very interesting things going on right now in the UK. Probably in the rest of the crazy western world as well. That is the case of gender identity and the increasing water problem. The gender identity is something that ‘normal’ people do not understand. So, they tend to dismiss it as not really important. I don’t really understand it except to say that those people I know who are gay, some of which tend to want to express their ‘gaiety’ through the wearing of silly clothing with some rainbow tinted imagery. Besides that I feel that a lot of twenty somethings just take the proverbial p*ss and have a little party protesting just for the sake of it. It surely has reached a ridiculous state when schoolgirls want to be known henceforth as a cat. Piers Morgan in one of his excellent articles pointed out just such a case from a school in the vicinity of London. Now, London is a hotbed of idiocy anyway but now the twenty somethings and younger have started to identify by anything...

Waking up this morning and yes, the sun is still shining. Sure, it is a bit on the dry side and as per the usual the threat to the hose and watering can looms large! Already in South-east England, Kent in particular is facing such a ban. As is normal, everybody is up in arms about it. Looking at it a bit more objectively, is it the fault of the water company? Sure, they must bear some responsibility, under-investment is one of them. It seems the managerial sickness in Britain, to let things just get along, sort of the old saying - “It’ll be alright on the night, Jack” is well and good established in the UK. The younger people are in the main more interested in what Beyonce wears when she gets up out of bed or what that wonderful TV extravaganza ‘Love Island’ has come up with. Yep, all very important. I am not in favour of living in a Nanny state, where government do-gooders decide how we must live and what job to do. But surely our governmental wallahs must decide some rules? At the mo...

The concept of space and existence is very interesting as mentioned in a previous post, only we could debate this for days and nights on end and still not come to a definite conclusion. You only have to listen to the many eminent learned people to find that there are at least a dozen different ideas about what space, the u niverse, and also the Universe, what it is. Some have postulated ideas coupled with wonderful theories, matched with acres of mathematical formulae. Brilliant stuff. The facts are simple enough. We are here, the solar system is quite visible, we can see the stars, we know a bit how it is all working. But that so far is all we have. The physical side of the u niverse we are beginning to unravel, there is a long way to go. But there is, as far as I am concerned a metaphysical side to the u niverse as well. Wikipedia puts it as follows: Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, including the first principles of: being or ex...

There is a reasonably good Question and Answer software program called Quora. To be fair you have to look for the things you are interested in as there are a lot of nonsensical questions as well. For instance, if your field is mathematics you can read things like ‘How many times can you deduct 1 from 50’? Yes, very interesting, wake me up please. Anyway, you can just ignore those. But recently there were a flurry of good ‘Universe’ questions. It is a field I just love to read about. Like this – ‘What is beyond the Universe? If it’s expanding that means it’s not infinite etc’. For myself I have asked this also. Except the concept or theory that the Universe is not infinite. True, we will probably never really know, the concept itself is ‘infinite’. But it is fun just to let the mind wander across the vastness. Like this – What do we mean by Universe? First and foremost the term Universe is mostly taken to mean what we can see and furthermore probably including some of what we cannot s...

Anyone absolutely certain what is happening in the Ukraine? I suppose we all know there is a war going on, although the good Russians are calling it a special military operation. Like that makes it any different. From my point of view it just seems that the lowest human behaviour is on show. Meaning plain destruction. Destruction of property, infrastructure. About just everything. The Russians are applying their age-old doctrine, total destruction of property and people. Like the Mongols of old, they intend to just run over the land leaving nothing in their wake but rubble and graves. It is the age old human disease, to acquire possessions, power and influence over other humans wherever they may be. So, we have been reading and assimilating all the news about it but for myself I am aware that lots of it is either just plain propaganda (most of it from the Russian side) or fake. I am no military expert or a tactical genius but even I can see from the maps and the happenings on the gro...

Britain has become ungovernable. Or at least it has with the people now governing it. Every day now we hear about more MPs who have fallen foul of the law. Sexual depravity is rife in the hallowed halls of power. Perhaps rife is a big word and these activities are not as numerous as the word suggests, nevertheless there are too many. Let’s be fair. what are MPs for? I think these people need to ask that question themselves! Take Boris, I am sure he is a hoot in the pub. But Prime Minister? I believed he could be but how wrong can you be? I think there is now a belief that anyone can put themselves up to govern, in the belief that it is well-paid with plenty of goodies along the way. And all you have to do is shout ‘Hear, hear’ a few times on a Wednesday. Too many of the 650 MPs have little idea what goes on in Britain, let alone the world. Today those that shout loudest get a hearing and not only just a hearing, get some action as well. See the ongoing Oil protests, glueing themselves...

So, a highly decorated British colonel has fallen foul of the woke brigade. His misdemeanour? He told a foreigner to go back where he came from. Whoaah, that’s good news to me. I have been told a few times to go back where I came from, the lush meadows of Holland that would be. but Frankly I told the perpetrator to stick his appendage under the paper press roller in the printing press where we both worked. Everybody had a laugh and we had a beer after work. So, can I now sue the man? Well, why would I? The Court’s time is being wasted already with these idiotic allegations. But to be sure I believe the so-called lawyers and solicitors love these things. Money, money, it’s so funny they sang in Mamma Mia, yet money indeed is the source of all this rubbish. Lawyers would not even think of touching these cases if there was no money in it. So, withdraw all public money such as legal aid and we will see soon enough what value these cases have. I suspect they would die out almost immediately...

Bit of a surprise for the lady of the house and me. Our daughter treated us to a ticket for a trip on the ‘Waverley’. The Waverley is a paddle-steamer built in 1947 and reputedly the only one left in the world. Well, at least in the UK! The ship would leave the pier at Penarth (the small town next to Cardiff) for the trip to Ilfracombe, the small town in North Devon, England. It is about 70 odd miles I think and the trip lasts for about just 2 hours plus. The weather at the moment here is governed by a high pressure system, meaning calmer seas. Yet due to a stiff breeze there were visible the well-known ‘white horses’. For foreigners that means asking the age-old question – ‘White horses’? Are there horses on the water? No, friends it just means white capped waves. It made the ship sway ever so little but noticeable looking at the stumbling people around the decks. One very serious question needs asking though, a ship like the ‘Waverley’ which is not enormous like today’s ocean-liners...

The television world is a funny world is it not? Full of prima donnas, full of people who have a very large idea about themselves. Building up a visual image that everybody can see, complete with a social media persona which in most cases is not even close to reality. A life built like the Blackpool Tower except it is on faulty foundations. All too soon it will come tumbling down. Take Philip Schofield. Probably deep in his heart a nice man, probably without TV he would have been someone quite ordinary, nice-looking bit of a cheeky smile but working for Tesco behind the lingerie counter. Why? Because women like cheeky chappies? I don’t know, I am not a cheeky chappie I suppose. But looking at the case my point of view is this – Yes, as we all know the TV world is something that ought to have its own planet. Self promoting people by the thousands, another couple of thousands looking to join them and would do anything, yes anything, to get there. You look on social media and you will see...