We've forgotten how to live

I am re-watching Star Trek Voyager. This short clip made me think about everything we had to put up with during the 'pandemic'. That and pretty much everything Public Health England have ever done

They're no longer trying to hide it...

...they're openly taking the piss out of us now, with no shame

Electric cars should face ‘tyre tax’, says air quality adviser

Why? Because electric cars pay less in other taxes and the Government is missing the lost revenue?

Particulates generated by tyre wear are more dangerous to public health than diesel exhaust fumes, a Government expert claims

LOL! What blatant bollocks is that?

Fuel tax is not supposed to be a tax that is earmarked for anything in particular, it's supposed to be there to discourage vehicle use. It's like cigarette taxes discouraging smoking. If people move to electric cars and stop paying fuel tax, that is supposed to be job done. If the Government can't get along without these taxes, they're doing something wrong

That's what they can't admit in public, so they need an excuse. We must have reached a collective stupidity of a level so high, the above bollocks about tyre wear is considered a serious reason for more taxes

 A ‘tyre tax’ will need to be imposed on electric cars to combat poor air quality in cities, the Government’s top clear air adviser has claimed.

Particles from tyre wear are more dangerous to public health than diesel exhaust fumes, Professor Alastair Lewis said.

Known as “particulate matter (PM) 2.5”, the amount of air pollution is growing because motorists are driving ever larger vehicles with more substantial tyres.

“[And] larger, heavier vehicles will generate more particles.”

Particles from tyre wear do not enter the atmosphere and seek out the lungs of vulnerable children. They drop straight to the floor and are washed away by the next rainfall

And no tax, whatever the reason, will prevent tyre wear, exhaust emissions or even climate change

You and I, reader, may think this claptrap is beyond parody, but we also know it won't be long before the tread depth tax is brought in and campaigners are demanding funding to come up with ever more fanciful reasons why it needs to be increased

Maybe one day they will propose an emissions tax called the 'Exhausting tax', because that's what this Government is 

Abortions for some, little American flags for others!

So the Supreme court in America has done something to do with abortions that apparently says it's not up to them and should be handled by individual states. Or something

Which apparently translates to some kind of Trump inspired, ultra right wing conspiracy to set light to all the women. Or something

And the response is a huge outpouring of idiots proclaiming their own idiocy and ignorance. Or something

A situation best left well alone in my opinion. English aren't very good at interpreting the American judicial system anyway, so there's really no point chirping up about something which really isn't any of our business

Unless you're the NHS:

The Government should offer free abortions to women from the US who are unable to secure them, British doctors have said....

I wonder what British taxpayers have said? You really would have to be a grade A nitwit, to come out with something like that. Also a required qualification for a senior position in the NHS

The full story is behind a paywall, but Worstall has the meat of it:

Proposing the motion, medical student and women’s rights campaigner Marina Politis described the situation in the US as an “emergency”, saying: “Abortion is essential health care… In [some] cases, the US Supreme Court decision is a death sentence. In other, less risky, pregnancies, this decision still removes an essential right of the individual to choose what happens to their own body.”

Idiots gonna id. Of course the ruling is none of any of that and does none of that. The entire paragraph is complete bullshit. Womens rights campaigner though; the dumbest of the dumb

I remember learning in school, about the struggle of women to obtain equality. Those womenfolk always struck be as pretty strong people with pretty cool heads on their shoulders. It's hard to believe, as their present day versions are jibbering cry babies with the socio-economic knowledge of a side salad

She added: “In the context of a hostile environment, we have seen increased migrant charging. We also need to provide safe abortion care to all nationals seeking this in the UK, without subjecting them to overseas patient upfront tariffs – and this must be regardless of borders going far beyond the US.”

I give you Worstall's analysis of the above proposal:

Bugger that

Indeed. It grips my shit when the NHS pays the medical expensis of illegal immigrants who have made it into the country. This cretin wants to extend free healtcare to people who live thousands of miles away, too. 

Maybe we should also pay their air fair?

There are between half and one million abortions in America every year. Sure, bring them all over here. These people have lost the capacity to think things through

Home

Well I've been back from Corfu for almost a week now. The tan is slowly fading and my Corfu arse is slowly getting back to normal
At least the weather has been nice. I wasn't looking forward to leaving the 30+ degree heat, to be thrust into normal British weather, but this week has done it's best to let me down gently

The busy period at work begins next week. It will now be arses and elbows until at least mid-November, so I'm glad I had a couple of weeks to relax and think about nothing other than where we're going to eat

Blogging should resume after the weekend. Probably. It's still so hard to care at the moment

Threat level, high!

Well we had an interesting day. We set off earlier for a 3km walk to the next village, but half way there the heavens opened and we got soaked.

We nipped into a bar called Stephano's Place, to get a brew and dry off. The girl serving brought us towels and because my t-shirt was so wet, she gave me another one. It's two sizes too small and has the name of the bar on the front and back. I've been mistaken for a local twice, since putting it on

We completed the journey after a while, but got lost in the town. A random taxi driver stopped by touting for business, so we got a lift back

About half an hour ago, we were sat on the balcony eating a takeaway pizza, when both our phones went off with a wierd siren noise. I looked and the screen was flashing "Emergency Alert". After reading it, it turned out to be a weather warning for storms this evening

It frit the shit out of both of us. I thought we were under nuclear attack or something

I've never seen anything like that before and in my opinion, if it's not impending armageddon, it's just not worth it

The adrenaline has calmed down now and were looking forward to the lightshow that is a good Corfu thunderstorm

Yamoose!

Myself and Mrs Bucko are currently on holiday in Corfu, so blogging will be non-existant for the next week and a half, unless I put something up about how hot it is, how red I am or how much I had to drink last night

 

So you heard about alll the commotion going on at Manchester airport, with the massive queues and the angry chavs missing their flights? Kids Christmas ruined and compo faces akimbo?

 

Well it's realy nothing to worry about. That is, if you're flying at 15:00 from terminal 3, it's nothing to worry about. I can't speak from experience for any other time or terminal

 

We'd been advised to turn up four or even five hours before the flight, but also told that people turning up too early were adding to the chaos. We decided to stick to the official advice and arrive three hours early.

We also added an extra hour on to our drive time as it was Thursday, a once in a lifetime bank holiday.

 

As it turned out, the traffic was lighter than normal and we didn't need the extra hour, so we were four hours early to the airport

We queued up at the Ryanair (Ugh!) check-in and 45 minutes later, we had bags checked and were outside again smoking a fag

 

I spoke to a guy on security about their waiting times and he advised to go to security at least an hour and fifteen minutes before out flight

 

We had to toss up between going through security hideously early in the only terminal where you can't smoke after security, but can have a beer, or sit for two hours outside the terminal doing nothing but smoking fags. In the end we decided to go through security and get a beer

Another 45 minutes later and we were through security and in the bar. And looking at the longest queue I've ever seen in my life, not just the airport. Two guys having a pint told us it took them an hour and fifteen minutes to get served. We looked for another option, but there was none, so I joined the queue

It's no wonder it was taking so long to deal with the queue, there were only two staff on the bar. One of them kept wandering off and the other was a huge land whale who only moved at one pace, which was bordering on stopping and falling asleep

I was about fifteen minutes from the end of the queue when a young lad approached me and offered to buy my drink if I ordered his at the same time. I explained I was buying four pints and he readily agreed to pay for all of them if I ordered six pints for him and his mates

I went to the bar, ordered ten pints and then shouted, "Here yar mate, will you give us a lift taking these back?", so it didn't look like he was jumping the queue. I took my four and left him to take his six and sort the bill. Saved me a furtune at those prices and saved him an hour in the queue

Anyhoo, the plane was delayed for fifty minutes after we taxied, but it was clear skies and plain sailing after that. Ryanair (Ugh!) even did their job pretty well and we had a pleasant flight

According to Greek law, you still have to wear a facemask on public transport, and according to Ryanair law, you have to wear one on the plane if that is the law in the destanation country. There were multiple announcements before we took off, about the requirement to wear a mask over your nose and moth for the whole flight and about being kicked off mid-air if you don't. I only noticed about four people who did wear a mask and the cabin staff did not beother anyone about it, which was nice

We have a rule when we arrive on holiday. One waits for the cases and the other goes outside the airport for a smoke. We got to the carousel and I reminded Mrs Bucko that it was her turn to go out. She said there was no point as our cases were already here. It took less time to get off the plane and out of the airport than it did to get a pint in Manchester

Ten O'Clock we were in a taxi, almost there when we spotted two friends who live in Corfu, sat in a bar at the end of the road, so we quickly dumped our cases and walked down to have a quick pint with them. I thought Mrs B had told them we were coming, but she hadn't, so it was a total surprise and a quick pint became very messy. I don't know what time we got back to the apartment, but I was rough as arseholes in the morning

I was so hungover, I couldn't stay in bed, but wasn't fit to put the kettle on or even open the fridge, so I just went to the bar and sat with Kostas, our host, while he served me a long diet of water, coffee, juice and local gossip

By the time I was compus enough to function in polite society, I asked him for the bill, but he let me off all of it as, in his words, it was, "An emergency situation". You gotta love the Greeks. They can be the friendliest people on Earth once you scratch the surface

I also made another schoolboy error the following day. Factor 6 suncream in 36 degree heat while I still had nothing but my English winter tan. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as blistering, but it's been quite painful to wear a shirt for a few days and also to have a shower, so my personal hygiene has been questionable to say the least. When it's this hot, washing yourself in the sink just doesn't cut it

Well it's day six now. The hangover is a distant memory, the skin has healed to a manageable and more importantly, showerable extent, my Corfu arse is in full effect and I'm in that perfect holiday mood where it's just so hard to care about anything and I can't remember a time when I was ever cold

So if anything interesting happens, I might let you know, but it's not looking likely. Until then, TTFN