Bill

We always vote in the general elections and usually in the local ones as well, but this time round we just didn’t bother, and I suspect we weren’t on our own. The politicians can make of that what they will. Bill 😊

The trouble with low wattage travel kettles and single cup heaters is they take an age to boil and you don’t want that when your gagging for a cuppa. If my brainwave works, it should save both time and energy and it doesn’t involve doing anything to the kettle. The plan is, immediately after making a brew, the kettle’s refilled, and a button gets pressed to indicate to the logic that there is water in the kettle. Now there’s plenty of time for my 300 or so watts of excess solar to slowly heat the water, maintaining it just below boiling point. Then when the next cuppa’s needed, a second press of the button turns bypasses the controller, applying full mains to complete the boiling within a few seconds. Of course, if there’s little or no sun, it just works as a normal kettle. With ideas like this I should be a millionaire by now but I’ll be content with a quicker brew and saving about 5p a day. Bill 😊

At least now I’ve got an old kettle to play with and when I’ve got a bit more time I’m going to convert it into a smart kettle 😕 My idea is to preheat the water every time I sense excess solar power going back to the grid, which on a day like today is pretty much constant 350 watts. Then when you want a cuppa, it’ll only take a few seconds to bring it to the boil. Might sound like a lot of faffing just to do this but it keeps my mind active and me out of her way. Bill 😊

That’s the difference between us blokes and women. If it were up to me I’d probably have one of the old gas ones with a whistle. Wonder if they ever cracked the problem of the whistle leaving a dark ring around your mouth when you blew into it for too long. I did see a small two cup travel kettle that was really cheap and at only 1Kw could have almost boiled from my solar setup. What a brilliant idea, I thought about that for nearly a whole second. 😊 Bill 😊

Over the last few months, our kitchen kettle has been playing up by turning off before it’s done. Just touch it slightly and its back on again so clearly it was down to the swivel connection between the base and the kettle. I tried to clean the contacts which did make it a bit better for a while, but it was a losing battle; we needed a new one. The identical DeLonghi one that matched the other items in the kitchen was expensive, but you know what women are like. ☹ Before I tried the new one though, I put the old kettle on the new base and bingo it worked perfectly. Paid 70 quid when all that was needed was just the crummy base. They all probably use the same connector so I could have just bought a cheap kettle for its base and kept the original which worked and still looked perfect. Makes you wonder how many items like this get trashed every year. Bill 😊

One obvious solution, but again it wouldn’t work. Look at this last attempt where the little girl died. They were stuck on a sandbank just a few hundred yards out from the French coast and yet we picked them up and brought them here. What’s that all about? At that distance the French should have picked them up and taken them back and yet we end up doing it. It’s so unbelievable you have to start wondering are we being told the full story or just fed a line. I’ve heard tell that the French use small crossbows to puncture a lot of these boats and have stopped thousands in their tracks or so they say, but again I’m beginning to wonder. The only thing that’s certain in all this is everything we’ve done so far hasn’t worked and yet we continue to play the same endless game of whackamo. Mr Sunak is pinning all his hopes and probably his political career on Rwanda working and I sincerely hope it does because despite what people say it’s probably our best option so far. Bill 😊

The bloke was an Afghan who’d been living with his family in Sweeden for several years rather than under a tarpaulin in Calis so not exactly typical. It’s fair to assume he wasn’t destitute as this was his fourth paid attempt to get across. Got to feel for his predicament but this wouldn’t have happened if his first attempt could have been prevented. Bill 😊

Seems like they make it up as they go along. It’s sometime back now when they decided there wasn’t enough prison spaces and rather than build more, they changed the guidance effectively shortening sentences, and that for me was the biggest mistake ever. The career crims already had it easy but giving them a get out of jail free card just gave them a short break from routine and most were back inside within weeks. I’ve not seen anything about what Obs said but that does seem a bit lenient given the circumstances. Chances are though he’ll be out in 3.5 years with even less regard for both the police and the justice system and more likely than not, go on to become a repeat offender. The system sucks. Jail time needs to be so bad that they won’t want to go back. Bill 😊

Although that’s a bit tongue in cheek Sid, some of that sort of stuff could probably work. Remember I was telling you that I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading lately, mainly fictional police detective stories where the protagonist is an old school copper nearing retirement and having to contend with the constantly changing rules and todays modern methods. The old methods got results without all the box ticking that goes on these days. It seems to me that there’s a whole load of small things that have been introduced over the years that when added together make policing near impossible. The criminals and the youth of today know this and so have no qualms about lying to them and giving them all sorts of abuse, safe in the knowledge that the legal profession has got their backs. The police on the other had have to contend with the fact that they themselves could face disciplinary procedures from the force itself if they don’t fully abide by the strict rules governing their dealing with law breakers. Not suprising then that so many decide to call it a day. Bill 😊

Finally Obs we’re in agreement, it'll work providing we make it abundantly clear that when it starts, they will be immediately deported. No could, no possibly and most definitely no ultimately. The message has to hit home hard and be followed up with action. Show any signs that there’s a chance they might not be deported, or it could take ages, and they’ll keep on coming. As long as we’ve stopped any more coming, we can reduce the backlog by doing what we do now, i.e. sending them back to where they came from. If that’s not an option, then and only then should Rwanda be used. The priority has to be to use the deterant to stop the boats. Bill 😊

There’s no come on with my logic Obs. A deterrent is to stop someone from doing something in the first place, not after they’ve done it. Yes we need to sort out the thousands that are already here but from what I’ve seen on telly, Rwanda doesn’t seem ready for those sorts of numbers, in fact they said the hotel where they would stay only has capacity for 100 people. If it’s going to work it has to be a stop now or else threat. The first ones to set foot in a boat are the ones to target otherwise they’ll continue to take their chances, especially if they think all that will happen is they get put in a hotel at the end of a very long queue. They’re not stupid, they know the UK can’t send everyone to Rwanda because aside from the astronomical cost, there’s simply not enough capacity there and the system would probably end up being a mega expensive mistake. Once we’ve deterred any more from coming, then we can start working to reduce the numbers currently being held. Makes perfect sense to me but you can bet our politicians will bugger it all up. Bill 😊

The idea of a deterrent is to stop people attempting to cross. You can’t deter people that have already made it here. The only way it’ll work is that the first people who attempt to cross will be the first ones to be shipped out. Nobody in their right mind will want to do that and so potentially we might not even have to send anyone to Rwanda. Bill 😊

There seems to be no end to crime in the UK (especially knife crime) with the police seemingly fighting a losing battle. While the upper echelons get shuffled to find the best woke person for the job, the front-line staff are quitting in droves or handing in their crime fighting equipment. So, what’s happened to leave us in this situation and what’s needed to put things right? Bill 😊

I’ve just taken my brother for his jab at a walk-in centre in Partington and he was told he didn’t need an appointment. He was in and out within two minutes and they even gave him a choice of vaccination types. The only downside was they’d run out of lollypops. 😊 A few of my friends have opted to not have the jab this time claiming they believe they’ve built up enough immunity. I reminded then that the last one that said that to me ended up dying from it. Bill 😊

It’s been a week or so and everything seems to have finally settled down between both countries. How long it’ll last is anyone’s guess but I’m uncrossing my fingers and hoping that doesn’t kick it all off again. It’ll never end between these two, but at least World War three has been averted (at least for now) and new potatoes are finally on the shelves, so it isn't all bad news. 😊 Bill 😊