DutchEnery

The rumblings about our waste plastic are getting louder! A BBC programme with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – Monday 10/6/2019 named War on Plastic was an absolute eye-opener as to what is really happening with our waste plastic. It is NOT recycled at all. It is just baled and shipped over to Asia, in this case Malaysia. A plastic bag that I use every week, every day to collect our household’s plastic milk bottles, glass and all other plastic waste was shown. Locally it is Rhondda Cynon Taf council, supplying plastic bags for our plastic waste to be collected because WE RECYCLE IT it says. No it shows they do not, they sell it on to a company or companies that ship it far away. I have often thought – what do they do with all these empty containers, left empty after Chinese goods, mostly all made of plastic, have been unloaded here to feed our insatiable appetite for trash? Ah, I begin to understand – some entrepreneur found a way – ship these bales of plastic waste in emp...

It was reported (on national BBC’s Teletext) that Ann Widdecombe had some of her theatre appearances cancelled as a result of her ‘homophobic’ comments. In this case her opinion on homosexuality meaning that in the far distant future a medicine could be found, made, discovered that would ‘heal’ homosexuality. Rather an interesting viewpoint and ripe for a very long TV discussion, me thinks. There are however a few things to consider here, firstly – what about freedom of speech? Are we now going to pander to the opinions held by smallish pressure groups? Or the liberal soft middle-class elite? I think perhaps it is time to define ‘freedom’. Secondly we need to have a good look at the whole PC issue. The trouble with political correctness is that instead it working for the good of all, it only works for a very few. Ann, we all know her cherished religious views, is a most outspoken person I know with some very interesting viewpoints that command some  respect. A lot of people inc...

Just wondering at the moment whether we actually have sane politicians in this country? I mean the continual snide remarks levelled at the American president. OK, you might not like the man but he is a serving Head of State and not just any old state at that! He is not my favourite person either but if I had to talk to him or about him I would remember that to negotiate a successful outcome to a problem or situation, I might have to forego one or more cherished opinions. However, when I hear the wonderful UK politicians like Bercow and Khan performing, what it is they try to achieve? It all smacks of a total misjudgement of political nous. Perhaps it would be better if Bercow was made to resign forthwith as I cannot see how and why a serving Head of State is not allowed to speak in that hallowed rat-infested building. Moreover Mr Khan should take the President’s words to heart, London has a big violent crime problem and unfortunately for him, he is in charge. So get on with it Khan a...

Whoa, I was hoping to have a nice easy Friday at the end of this month of May. But then I bought the Daily Express (a UK tabloid newspaper) and read Frederick Forsyth’s article. To say the FF is a Brexiteer is probably an understatement but nevertheless it made interesting reading because he was right. You might be a Remainer but the facts are correct, Theresa May has been a bumbling premier having made some atrocious judgements and mistakes. For myself I am asking – where do we get these people from? Eton? What are they teaching at Eton? At Oxford University? Even so, her ‘negotiations’ with Brussels must go down in history as an example of how NOT to negotiate. They obviously do not teach that at Oxford. Actually I just wonder why she bothered at all. The problem now is how to catch up with all the things in the UK that need sorting out but have been put on the shelf because madame was too busy trying to come up with more fudges to her ‘deal’. Who were her advisers? As FF pointed o...

Uh oh, the deed finally has been done – the PM has decided enough is enough. Perhaps she was forced to do so or her husband told her to. Whatever, and I must say she has been a failure as a PM, just another administrator with no capacity to lead. Because that is what a PM needs most of all, how to tell other people to get on with it and follow the plan, the PM plan! This has been her biggest failure, she could not do that or so it appears. As a result the government became a rudderless ship. Sending underweight civil servants to serious negotiations must be one of the biggest idiocies of all time. But there it is and over the next year we will read a number of books all saying one thing – her failure to step up to the parapet. Indeed that is what a PM needs, he or she needs to get drunk now and again, probably swears and throws things around No.10. Wow, that’ll be a show. No, seriously we need a fighter, a self-centred steel-cladded boxer. Frankly, except for one candidate there is r...

Politics is a bit of a strange thing, is it not? It certainly challenges oneself. I say this because having originally come from a sound left social household where dad would not condone any talk of business laissez-faire as a son I would rebel. Well, OK it sure puts your mind pointing to other things. Mostly opposite things. But in the UK I found that just left of centre politics suited me well. That is why the Social Democrats appealed. Then the upheaval started and is still going on today. The SDP became the Liberals despite the new name Liberal Democrats, Labour turned so far left they have fallen off the stage and the Conservatives, which are basically three different parties, left, centre and right, have lost the plot and cannot remember how to govern. The point of it all is that ever since WW2 we have been looking how to fit in with a totally changed Europe. Looking at Europe which we should do a bit more often in this country, you will notice mostly a type of coalition govern...

Ah, Eurovision time again. The UK last again as well, lovely! Congrats to the Netherlands on winning this extravaganza of drivel. Every song had to be as loud as possible, screaming at the top of the mediocre voices. There was not a single song that could be called memorable. This is not sour grapes. The UK deserved to be last. When I watched and sat down to be entertained I quickly downed my beer and turned to cognac quickly. When our entry came up I said ‘Who?’ ‘Never heard of him’. Obviously we have not spent any time in preparation, just picking someone with a reasonable voice to belt out another ‘boom-boom song’. It was remarkable how many songs had exactly the same drumbeat. Frankly I would vote Brexit after that lot. At least the BBC needs to have a good look at how it manages this effort or if it cannot, drop the whole thing. Ed 25/5 - Just read an interesting article in a national newspaper. More or less saying that whatever we have, even a song by someone like Tom Jones o...