West Drayton Station – 3rd May 2019
I took these pictures at West Drayton station.
Look at the bridge. It is very little different to this picture, which was taken in 2015.
Stairs have been added, but there is no sign of the lifts.
It is surely obvious to the around two million passengers who use the station every year, that little progress is being made at West Drayton station.
Obviously, it was not obvious to Sadiq Khan and his advisers sitting in their bunker South of the River!
He should remember, that he’s a Mayor for all Londoners and not those, who voted him in as an MP.
If there’s a North London candidate in the next Mayoral Election, they will get my vote, even if they’re from the Moster Raving Looney Party!
Lessons From Extinction Rebellion
I only came across Extinction Rebellion once and I took these pictures.
Oxford Circus was totally blocked.
So what have we learned?
A Relatively Small Largely Peaceful Group Can Bring A British City To A Halt
By not using any violence or threats of violence, the good nature of the Metropolitan Police meant that the protest was able to continue, despite the large number of arrests.
It also seemed that many after arrest, went back to the protest.
The Great British Public Didn’t Seem To Be Too Annoyed
Although, one or two celebrities, white van and black cab black drivers seemed to be annoyed, when they were interviewed, the Great British Public seemed to take it on the chin.
Crime Didn’t Seem To Rise In Areas Unaffected By The Protests
I’m not sure of this, but do-called newspapers like the Express, Mail and Sun didn’t seem to have any screaming headlines on the subject.
At The Right Time These Protests Can Be Cleared Without Heavy Police Force
In the end, the Oxford Street and Waterloo Bridge protests, were cleared by strength of numbers and no use of pepper spray, baton rounds or water cannon.
The Future Of Protest
I think we will see more protests of this type against or for such issues as Brexit, Remain and onald Trump.
Would the Met be able to cope with simultaneous protests for the first two groups?
Thinking About Climate Change
Will the Extinction Rebellion protests make us think more about climate change?
Investing In Renewable Energy
One trend I have noted over the past few years, is companies like Aviva, are investing large amounts of our pension funds in large renewable energy projects.
I wrote about one project in World’s Largest Wind Farm Attracts Huge Backing From Insurance Giant.
The Extinction Rebellion protests, must make it easier for Aviva and their like, to justify their investment decisions.
I feel that if the Government sets the right guidelines and tax rules, that companies like Ariva with their billions of pounds of funds, have more power than the Government to change the future.
Politicians
politicians in the UK are like a load of peasants on bicycles trying to put on a synchronised cycling display in a heavy thunderstorm.
They are morons led by mules!
I regularly use this phrase.
Engineering is the science of the possible, whereas politics is dreams of the impossible.
You can substitute lots of other professions for engineering.
But what we need is politician, who think in scientifically-correct pathways.
After all, you can’t disobey the laws of maths, physics, chemistry, biology and human nature.
But politicians believe you can otherwise racism, Marxism and Fascism wouldn’t exist.
Mondeo Man And Woman Living In A Comfortable House
Are these the real problem, as they drive around in their diesel car, live in very eco-unfriendly houses and fly to their holidays in America and the Far East?
How many of the vast majority of the UK population, even accept that climate change exists?
If they do, they always point to places like China and the United States, who carry on as normal!
Conclusion
There will be more and bigger protests, until politicians manage the art of synchronised bicycle riding!
Is There A Connection Between The Rise Of Knife Crime And Brexit?
This may seem an outrageous suggestion to make!
However, serious knife crime seemed to increase around or just after the Brexit referendum.
But the Brexit Referendum on the 23 June 201, does seem to have brought out the worst in some people.
- Jo Cox was murdered just seven days earlier.
- Since then there has been the rise of the far-right.
- MPs of all colours have received terrible abuse on social media.
- Racist chants seem to have reappeared at some football matches.
- The Labour Party has had a row on anti-semitism.
I’m no psychologist, but it’s almost as if the Brexit result has said it’s alright to go against established norms.
I wonder if crime rose in the Phoney War in 1940.
This page on History Extra is entitled 10 Facts About Crime On The Home Front iI The Second World War.
Read it and see what you think!
Science Has Dim View Of Brexiteers’ Brains
The title of this post is the same as that as an article on Page 3 of The Sunday Times
This is the first three paragraphs.
It is a belief that some pro-Europeans already hold dear, but a group of scientists now claim to have confirmed it: Brexit voters are less bright than remainers.
Researchers gave 11,225 volunteers psycholigical tests before the referendum and asked how they intended to vote. Results suggest that leavers tended to be less numerate, more impulsive and more prone to accept the unsupported claims of authoritarian figures.
“Compared with remain voters, leave voters displayed significantly lower levels of numeracy and appeared more reliant on impulsive thinking.” said the researchers, based at Missouri University.
Nigel Farage is quoted as saying the research was “divisive and arrogant”.
Some would say those two words should be applied to him.
Articles In Today’s Times
In addition to World’s Top Wealth Fund Puts Billions Into Britain, there were other articles worth blogging about in today’s copy of The Times.
Build New Homes Away From Roads, Heath Watchdog Says
Surely, this very sensible! The distance can of course be vertical!
Plastic Packaging Used To Make Car Parts In Upcycling Revolution
Scientists working for the US Department of Defense have shown it is possible to convert recycled PET bottles and other packaging into useful long-life products.
Corbyn’s Favourite Firebrand Is Suspended In Antisemitism Row
My father believed that there was little different between the extreme left as represented by Stalin and the extreme right as represented by Hitler.
Agent Orange Shows Fatty The Third The Art Of No Deal
The title of this post is my translation of the front page headline of today’s Evening Standard.
- Agent Orange is Spike Lee’s nickname for the current US President.
- Fatty The Third is how the Chinese refer to Kim Jong-un on social media.
These two imbeciles deserve each other!
Is Brexit Stoating About Coming To An End?
As a Control Engineer, I know that all systems tend to an equilibrium.
As we approach the 29th of March, I see signs of actions, that are nudging us towards a deal, that will be acceptable to enough people.
- Corbyn and May still have their own internal party problems, but both have moved slightly to a position, that could get a deal through Parliament.
- The EU was also said to be more accommodating about a change to the backstop, by a Government minister.
- Honda’s closure of UK manufacturing, seems to have added a dose of reality. Even though, I don’t feel Brexit was the major reason for closure.
- Hard-liners on both sides seem to have stopped shouting so loud.
- Companies are taking decisions, that will work in all eventualities.
- The City is still announcing more mega office and residential towers, as are Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, to name but three cities.
It’s just like an airliner landing after a very bumpy flight from Australia, where somebody forgot to load any alcohol! A lot of panic, but then reality kicks in.
I think we’ll see a deal passed by Parliament in time for a March 29th Brexit, despite the Democratic Unionist Party saying No! They always do, as it’s the only word in their political dictionary, which is the smallest book in the world.
Enough of the Labour Party will vote for it and the Rees-Moggies will reluctantly give their support.
I will be relieved when it’s all over!
Scrapping Of Airport Link ‘Lack Of Ambition’ At The Heart Of Government
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
This is one of those sagas that rumbles on and on, with all those involved in the decision having different views on how to solve the problem.
I suspect a very experienced transport engineer and planner from Aberdeen, Cardiff or Liverpool, could tell the Glaswegians what they really need on the back of a used envelope.
But there are so many politicians grinding axes in the decision, that nothing sensible will ever happen.
One of my Glaswegian friends told me some years ago, that they should close both Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports and build a new rail-connected airport between the two cities.
Look at these distances
- London to Gatwick – 27 miles
- London to Stansted – 38 miles
- Edinburgh to Glasgow – 46 miles
Perhaps my friend has a point, as a shared airport would be closer to Edinburgh and Glasgow, than Gatwick and Stansted are to London.
But as someone, who has only ever used Glasgow Airport once, I think that Glasgow’s biggest rail problem is the two separate stations in the centre with no simple interchange.
I walk between the two,stations, but not everybody can.
The Old Order Changeth Yielding Place To New
Two dinosaurs; the Labour Party and the motor industry, got big shocks yesterday.
But both are trying to live in the past with CEOs, who still think that we’re in the 1960s.
This morning, my message read out on Wake Up To Money was this.
I don’t drive any more, but the future is electric and the UK is blessed with a position and a climate to become one of the first countries to power most vehicles with renewables. Vehicle manufacturers must change or die!
Our renewable electricity generation infrastructure is growing apace and in the last few days, the world’s largest offshore wind farm opened, as reported in this article on the BBC, which is entitled First Power From World’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm.
The Hornsea Wind Farm will have a generating capacity of 6 GW. This is nearly twice as large a capacity as the troubled Hinckley Point C nuclear power station.
But whereas Hinckley Point C will produce continuous power, Hornsea will only produce power when the wind blows.
The National Grid are tasked with keeping the lights on and I agree with them, that energy storage is the solution.
- There are 25,000,000 homes in the UK. If every house in the UK was fitted with a 10 kWh storage battery, that would be a capacity of 250 GWH.
- There are 30,000,000 cars in the UK. If every car in the UK was electric and had a 30 kWh battery, that would be a capacity of 900 GWH.
These are very large numbers and just as the Internet passes data all around the UK and the world, the UK’s National Grid will access all these batteries to store energy, when perhaps the wind is blowing at night and retrieve it when there is a high demand.
On a domestic level, you may have an electric car and a battery in your house, with perhaps solar panels on the roof.
- At night and on sunny days, your batteries will be charged.
- At times of high demand, your stored energy may be sold back to the grid.
- Controlling it all would be an intelligent computer system, which would make sure that your car always had enough charge and you had enough energy for the house.
The problem is that nearly all of our houses and cars don’t fit this model.
The proposed closure of the Honda plant is Swindon, is the first of the many casualties in car manufacturing, that will surely happen.
More by luck, than judgement, when I moved to London after my stroke, I bought a house with the following features.
- Low energy consumption.
- A flat roof, that is now covered in solar panels.
- A garage, that would be suitable for an electric car. Although, I don’t drive, the next owner of this house, probably will.
Millions of houses in this country should be demolished and the land used for new houses that fit the modern age.
The Labour Party is living in the 1960s and Corbyn and McDonell still believe that the Robin Hood approach of stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor, is still the way to go.
But these days, most people want to be responsible for themselves. This is why there has been such a growth in people in the gig economy like Uber, Deliveroo and County Lines.
Everybody wants to take control of their lives and their own micro-economy. That is why I left a safe job at ICI in 1969, at the age of just twenty-two.
Like me, those who start their own successful business don’t want government to come along and use it on pet projects that always seem to fail.
Most politicians and especially Labour ones have never done a real job in their lives and Labour’s defections will hopefully be the first of many from all political parties.
I hope that February 18th 2019, will be remembered as the day when two dinosaurs realised they needed to change their spots.
But they won’t change willingly!
However!
- Companies and individuals will soon be buying electric vehicles in large numbers and only buying diesel and petrol ones, where there is no alternative.
- Voters will not vote for policies that stink of the past, that don’t fit their micro-economy.
There will also be a lot of unsaleable houses and second-hand cars!
The Anonymous Widower 