THE BRITISH THREAD II

You didn't read Steve's post, did you.
Think black, burning shame of yourself.

Right, I'm off out to the pub.

Of course I read Steve's post.

And I'm off out t'ut pub missen.

what a co incidence...I'm off to the pub too.

You guys are damn lucky!

Some of us are more aware of that than others.

Mugabe's had it.

An anathema from HMQ and a freeze-out from the cricket lot. Nobody can handle that.

Mandela just jumped on board as the train was pulling out. To keep his Goodguy image intact.

"Cancelled and annulled", were the words I think.

Well I've just heard some words from a govt minister that I found really surprising.

John Hutton the energy minister when talking about a rapid expansion of wind turbines used words like "absolutely imperative" and "vital to our way of life".

He talked about 3000 new wind "farms"...(he meant individual turbines) by 2020. He also said we must expand nuclear power and develop clean coal and gas technology. And it has to be done now. We cant afford to wait 10 years planning application like Sizewell 'B'. They are introducing legislation now to streamline the process, so they can put massive turbines at the bottom of every garden if its in the national interest. (not really but you know what i mean)

I never heard a minister use such language. Whats the rush John?

Mr Hutton went on about the necessity of reducing CO2 emissions, by 2020, or our very existence appears to be under threat.

This is all very interesting and appears to be agitating the minister. And so it should....BUT ITS GOT VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH CO2.

And everything to do with energy security. I do believe the government has woken up on this one. 30 years too late imho. Perhaps the crisis could have been avoided if 20 years ago the minister in charge of the country's energy supply had put in place plans to safeguard energy AFTER NORTH SEA OIL. Or perhaps the officials told him it was an infinite resource. Or perhaps he didnt actually give a damn about the future, being then well retired and living off a huge pension.

Instead, only last week, we watched the humiliating spectacle (dressed up as a bold gesture) of watching the PM go cap in hand to the Arabs, begging them to pump more oil so the price of petrol for Mondeo Man would drop.

I think the penny has finally dropped, and now they are panicking. Expect more panic measures.

oh and well done Germany! But Frings aint what they used to be.

Zimbabwe...lets be honest here, there is nothing we can do. If we took out Mugabe with a SAS squad, will he be replaced by anyone better? Or are we going to re colonise the country? Its up to Africans to run Africa. We might be sickened by the way they do it but its up to them. C'est la vie. and death

Good for you, Steve, very good points. with China and India expanding, whatever we in the UK do about CO2 emissions is bound to be insignificant.

Bur it would be nice to be in the forefront of alternative technical developments.

Security? Last year we saw how vulnerable we are to exports of gas from Russia.
Maggie Thatcher's government squandered our North Sea windfall, and we've got next to no infrastructure improvements to show for it.

Don't go down the pit, dad,
There's plenty of coal in the yard

That bloody woman!!! She knew exactly what she was doing. She smashed the miners the trades unions whole swathes of manufacturing industry. And she knew she could get away with it without a revolution (I'm being serious) because the country could afford it with oil. Makes me sick. Mind you if the unions had seen sense years before...remember Barbara Castles' "In Place of Strife"?

Let women get their hands on power and these things are inevitable.

Mrs Thatcher didn't know what she was doing.

I still can hardly believe the country elected that silly bat.

The Falklands fiasco was a national disgrace.

No wonder Dennis spent his life pissed.

Well I've always had a pet theory about the Falklands "fiasco" and Mrs T, which I used to discuss with my Dad, but as he's no longer around, let me indulge myself a moment.

In the early year and a half of her reign she was deeply unpopular. Silly bat was almost complementary. Remember the Tory "wets"? the Old School one Nation Conservatives? They were appalled by this gauche (?) is that the right word spendy you tell me...woman.

Now the Falklands had been a thorn in the side of the Foreign office for donkeys years. They the Argentinians were banging the drum. The islands were no earthly use. Even the possibility of oil wasnt a consideration.

But the Americans were worried about communism in S america. And in Argentina in particular. Now is the little conspiracy theory. Suppose Argentina takes the Falklands by force? Wild rejoicing in Buenos Aires, Galtieri's (disgusting) but anti communist regime bolstered.

And in Britain? Well someone would have to carry the can...and that would be Margaret. Bingo. Get rid of Thatcher, the Problem Islands and fall into line with American foreign policy all in one go.

I believe Thatcher was set up. I think enough signals were given to the Argentinians by those notorious Wets in the FCO (withdrawing the Endeavour remember) to give the green light to invade. And so they did.

Where it all went wrong of course, and one has to have a smidgeon of admiration for the silly bat here, is that she said we'll fight. On the other hand never has a politician imo so blatantly sacrificed the physical skins of servicemen to save her own political skin. But it worked. She won in 83 by a landslide and went on and on and ....well you know the story.

Anywho thats my theory, make of it what you will. Back to Russia Spain. Damn Spain scored.

We couldn't have done the Falklands without using Ascension Island and that's American-controlled.

Mind you, I don't think they were too keen on allowing its use at first, so there may be something in the theory. Maybe Reagan had to face down some anti-Brit opinion in his own camp at first.

That's a brilliant synopsis Steve. I agree totally.

"Gauche" is almost complimentary as well. She always looked like she wanted to wee.

I have a lot of fun in pubs asserting that chaps voted for her. They get so indignant that you can tell they did. I toyed with the idea of emigration when the Tories elected her leader. But packing all the gear up was far too much to contemplate, or even consider seriously.

Anyway- we are back now with a bloke in charge. Things might start getting better. It's a slow process.

They could have settled all the Falklanders in a villa in Torquay, which is far enough away as far as I'm concerned, with $5 million in the bank per family for a tenth of the price. Leaving out the heroes I mean.

As Private Eye had it--"They died to save her face".

She actually recommended that we should all stock our freezers up to beat inflation and only people like her, who had married a much older rich man on the bounce, had freezers or could afford the £800 necessary to fill it and the phucking thing was destroying the ozone layer.

Obviously the possibility of oil wasn't a consideration. Nobody cashes in on a gusher 8,000 miles away.

And she was lucky to get away with it as well. Like the Spanish Armada the Argies were incompetent foes. A competent foe would have had her hiding in the bushes.

The Iron Lady my arse.

Have you tried reading her autobiography Steve? I have. Somebody I know got a first edition on a car-boot sale for 50p. Mint too.

It looked unread and 95% of it still is.

G'Night Spendi

Hey we're flying to Oslo today.

I hereby adopt Spendy's nasal hair as my carbon trade-off.

Well done McT. Enjoy the cruise. Best wishes.

Gosh. Feel like I just got an A+


On the other hand I'm a sucker for a compliment

Wanna here my theory about Lord Lucan?

thought so