So now it’s a massive shortage of lorry drivers. Cars are snaking around the block near every petrol station. Soon, we’re told, there’ll be empty supermarket shelves. “I remember people pushing full trolley loads of loo rolls,” said one woman on the news, not realising that the people buying so many loo rolls back then were almost certainly small shopkeepers unable to secure supplies from their usual wholesaler! Listening to truck drivers on BBC local radio, it’s clear what’s causing much of the problem: very low pay, appalling conditions (no water/loos in their cabs), having to sleep in their lorry overnight, being forced to attend, at their own cost, useless mandatory training courses - in some cases after having been in the job for 40+ years, no younger drivers being recruited etc. Driver conditions in the EU are apparently far superior. In a panic, Boris has introduced 5000 temporary lorry driver visas for EU applicants. My urgent suggestion to all UK truck companies: improve pay, truck facilities and conditions immediately, at least to EU standards, so that recruitment becomes attractive enough to interest younger UK drivers. And for the rest of us - amidst erupting volcanoes, global warming and pandemics - when’s the world gonna return to normal?
19th September 2021
In May, new ‘smart’chargers in the home will be required to only work in off peak periods for electric cars, in order to stop the electric grid failing nationwide. So how will that work if your car runs out of juice outside of these hours, eg when you’re in a rush to meet an urgent appointment that’s just cropped up? And don’t get me started on other issues like what happens if you live in a high rise flat or have to park in different places every night, sometimes streets away! Just how long will the cables be? Hazardous for pedestrians/wheelchairs/pushchairs? What if your e-car breaks down/runs out of charge on one of those dangerous smart motorways - the ones with no hard shoulder ? I imagine that the RAC, if they turn up, would need an enormous trailer with an equally large generator, whilst the driver would be waiting in a vulnerable live lane. And don’t even mention if your e-car gets flooded or in a crash, whilst you’re sitting on that giant, expensive battery. Electrocution, fire?? Also, a new e-car battery, required every few years I understand, will cost a staggering £8k.TG in 10 years time when all petrol/diesal cars in the UK are banned, I’ll be too old to drive anyway.
12th September 2021
5th September 2021
Watching the England match held in Budapest on Thursday night was an example of how two different cultures have evolved. It was noticeable how the Hungarian players and their visible fans were all Caucasian, compared to an England team of mixed racial ethnicity. The booing at the start when the English players ‘took the knee’ set the scene, followed by the Hungarian fans chanting and throwing missiles against the English black players. It was very clear that the enormous strides achieved against racist attitudes in the west have still not been achieved by many in eastern Europe, despite Hungary being a member of the EU. It makes me realise that the reason so many things went catastrophically wrong in my own life was because I did not talk to people enough, creating misunderstandings and incorrect interpretations of my attitude. That’s why I wrote The Meleke Stone, to highlight not just how the peoples of the Middle East should get together more, but as a catalyst to show other warring peoples how to show brotherhood to each other. We already have to fight global viruses and natural disasters together, so why not racism too? As the moon rises tomorrow night, the year 5782 begins for the Jewish people. Bringing people together around the world really would be a wonderful global portent for the year ahead.
