Rich

At least you didn’t do a Grohl and end up in plaster. Or damage your bass (I hope).

Back in 2006, when I was in a death metal band, our drummer stage dived ... and noone caught him. We spent the rest of the night in A&E

Wahey, I was at that gig too! What an odd place for them to play, but a storming set! 

Local view

Love JTQ.
I think the best time I saw them was at the Cardiff music festival about 20 years ago. They played during a thunder storm. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain and Acid Jazz. It was awesome.

Pass the peas?

Remember the days when the worst thing about our PM was that he was a bit boring.. 

Yes... who would have thought that one day we would look back on it as the good old days.  

Do I need to quote Hannibal Smith?

I pity the foo that quotes Hannibal Smith. 

He's really superb, isn't he? I think I must've caught one of the very last dates on that tour before it got called off!

He sent me an email:

Grant Shapps MP <[email protected]>

To: mick

Fri, 8 Oct at 17:25

Dear Michael,

I hope you and your loved ones are doing well.

Given the events on our roads and at the petrol pumps recently, I thought you might appreciate an update on the measures we’re taking to both stop the protesters and alleviate fuel and other distribution strains post-Covid.

First, the Insulate Britain protests. As you will have seen protesters have been walking onto motorways, gluing themselves to carriageways, and blocking traffic on vital roads. Targets have included the M25, the Port of Dover, and the A1M in Welwyn Hatfield.

These protests are reckless and disruptive, as well as being counterproductive when it comes to pollution. The UK has the most ambitious plan to decarbonise transport of any major economy, but preventing people from travelling to work, delivering supplies and, in some cases, trying to get to hospital is simply unacceptable.

As Transport Secretary, I directed National Highways to take out injunctions against these protesters. Now if they attempt to block traffic again, they will be in contempt of court. This can result in up to six months in prison and unlimited fines.

Next, fuel supply and logistics more widely:

Countries from the USA to Europe and beyond are suffering a temporary Covid-related lorry driver shortage. With our excellent vaccine programme having released us from lockdown quicker than elsewhere – the UK economy is growing faster than any G7 (major) economy.

During the lockdowns we were unable to provide HGV licence testing which should have brought 30,000 new truck drivers onto the road. However, since the spring we have been working to get more HGV tests done. And have so far taken more than 24 measures which has hugely expanded capacity.

Even with this Coronavirus-related shortage of 300 tanker drivers, fuel pumps continued as usual for months. However, once the story was widely reported, demand inevitably grew, resulting in the queues for petrol that we recently saw. It is worth saying that at no point was there an actual shortage of fuel at any of the 6 refineries and 47 storage centres in the UK.

Which takes me to a wider point…

Lorry drivers are essential to our economy. They do an incredible job day and night. Yet unfortunately their pay and conditions has been poor for years. Free movement whilst we were in the EU meant that many equally hardworking European drivers were attracted to drive here. A lower cost of living back home meant that lorry driving wages here were suppressed and job retention became a problem. To put numbers on it; 99% of UK lorry drivers are male and the average age is 55. In short, new recruits were not forthcoming because salaries were too low.

Better remuneration means that nearly a thousand HGV provisional licences are being applied for every day. At this rate we will be able to fix the historic shortage of lorry drivers once and for all and in the short-term the country is grateful to dozens of men and women from the army for stepping in to fill up the gap.

As ever, if you have any queries about what’s happening, or anything else that’s on your mind, feel free to reply to this email or call my constituency on 01707 262632.

With warm wishes,

Grant.

P.S. You can view the list of 24 measures I’ve taken to resolve the long-term lorry driver shortage by clicking this link.

You were lucky to get anything. Liam Werrity Fox only ever responds to praise. I'm still waiting for a reply to 2 emails I sent him concerning Dominic Cummings in May 2020.

P.S. You can view the list of 24 measures I’ve taken to resolve the long-term lorry driver shortage by clicking this link.

🤣

And how many have worked?

None!

Ancient History Day...  IIRC that was 1972.

1978

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Southwest_Airlines_Flight_182

TBH this is one of the most chilling photos I have ever seen. One can only guess at the sheer unadulterated panic and terror inside that cabin. 

Yes.  I have seen (once, and never found again - I have a professional interest) a photo of a cloudscape over an American city; with an airliner in a 90-degree bank and its lower wingtip below the silhouetted buildings.  The photographer caught the airliner by accident.  There is no way that aircraft was capable of recovering.  So, everyone in it was about to die.  It is probably from one of the crashes which exposed the existence of clear air turbulence; so maybe 1975.

Are you still there Rich?

Got home at 2am today. See my post here:

You have my sympathies Rich, back pain = not good

Got one of those. The dogs were both in season recently and weren't allowed off the lead. Didn't stop them having "disorganised dog fights".

I'm all right when I'm upright - getting  up and sitting down is a different matter.

I have been recovering from a lower back issue and tweaked it yesterday. You have my sympathy Rich. I couldn't roll over in bed last night and was concerned I might never move again it was so bad. Luckily my back support was within reach and I managed to get it on. This at least enabled me to move again.

Jah im tole me ta buy dis hat.

My dad had one vaguely similar, made of yak wool, from visiting Bhutan.  The locks are to direct rain away from the body, I think.

That`s awesome Rich, really like that

Yup. 'Other people' being anyone who isn't straight, white, christian and male. 

America sliding steadily down the slope into barbarism.

To be fair they were already close to the bottom of pretty much every sensible league table where Big Nations are concerned. I feel sorry for the tens of millions whom this will affect, and despise the tens of millions who think this is Jeebus answering their Thoughts and Prayers, and the millions who did not vote for Hillary because of her emails...