LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME - 2022

@shiney it is the law over here that it is illegal to use handheld mobiles whilst driving and the fin is $2000. or about 1,300 of your pounds. Not something to take lightly.

I keep my phone behind my seat and in my purse. That way if I'm picking my nose (okay, no I don't do that in public) the hand up to face appearance won't get me in trouble as my phone is very clearly out of my reach.

That said, a trucker killed someone only a month ago. He went through a red light as he was distracted by his conversation using a hands free mobile. Damned stupid.

 

Must admit I dont understand the bit about still being able to make a contactless payment while driving.
Now that does sound dodgy.
It says payment being made with a card reader?
Last time I tried that it took me 15 mins.
Good job I was sitting in my bedroom at the time.

 

You often see on the TV the odd east European lorry diver, phone in each hand and the TV on.
But they do usually stick to the slow lane.
Or hard shoulder if its a super duper "smart motorway"

 

Simple answer: don't ever vote for the folks who strip all funding from our public services while complaining about waste in public services... We could be a country like Norway. There is a reason why we aren't. There are quite a few other reasons not to vote for them - like their appalling corruption...

I can only agree, Pete. They have disappeared into a pathetic haze of appeasement to hard right wing politicians. I used to read (and listen to) the BBC regularly. Maybe daily. I really do not bother now they have transformed to a Government mouth piece. Utterly pointless. I don't want to live in Russia and I mourn the loss of an indepdendent voice. I want to know what is actually happening out there. The BBC has long since given up reporting that - in scare pandemonia in case they upset the ruling autocracy and their backers. Tragic doesn't begin to describe it.

 

I didn't

but no matter want you say to the people in the top role nowt gets done to sort it out, many time i have talked to the PCC and many times no reply, the our pcc is now asking for a more money from tax payer and is asking for public's view on this, well he's going to get a strong e-mail from me but i think it will be a waste of time

 

I used to live in Jeremy Corbyn's constituency. Years ago - when no one had heard of him and he was just a long standing back bencher. Locally he was considered a total hero though - and had a road named after him in fact - because several days a week you could go and meet him in his consitutency office, and he would try to sort your problems for you. It was absolutely exemplary. When I tell that story, I am routinely accused of being a 'Corbynista' whatever that might be: I'm really not that. I'm just telling a straight forward story of an honest politician. Thankfully they aren't all like Boris, Tony or Cameron and their gangs.

Sadly I imagine that they won't be that interested in anything you've got to say...the number of politicians who actually listen - rather than pretending - are vanishingly few.

 

I'm not standing up for Boris or past prime ministers but being a local, listening, MP is a bit different to being a PM.
And the first one would not necessarily make a good second one.

 

Yes - agree entirely Pete. They really aren't the same and I've no idea whether JC would have made a decent PM or not. He could hardly have been worse than the current shower of criminals though - or their predecessors... the size of the resource pool put to supporting the latter and smearing the former is formidable though. And we have clear evidence of the apalling extremism and corruption of the current crowd. I see that some of the better calibre of commentators are pointing out that the demonisation of immigrants/minorities, the deliberate politics of division being stoked in the 'culture wars', the huge resources being put into voter suppression, the wild attacks on the judiciary and the right to protest are rightly called "fascist". I hide in Jersey and don't want to come home...

I find that, overwhelmingly JC is considered to be dangerous - though when asked, almost no one actually read his manifesto (it was a very sensible document that pointed out things like: the rail service is effectively nationalised already given the huge subsisidies we give them - we just pretend otherwise). His manifesto was the only place I know of that might tell us what to expect of him (given that definitively our standard news sources hugely misrepresent him).

Again - I'm not saying he'd have made a great PM. I think he'd have drowned in a sea of unachievable consensus-seeking. His desire to take everyone with him is admirable but seems quite massively unrealistic to me. The point though is the things that are believed about those politicians who stand up to the establishment are inevitably unhinged and wildly inaccurate and dispropoprtionate. (Does anyone ever mock a Tory minister for stupidity when they don't know their numbers they way Diane Abbott gets abused?)

Anyway. That's all quite depressing... My question for today: my sweet pea seeds that I collected, went mouldy and planted 'just to see' have all germinated and are growing in my greenhouse. What on earth should I do with 6 inch sweetpeas in January??????

 

Pinch the tips out so the sideshoots develop. Then in good weather stand outside and plant out when the weather is suitable. With me March - April.

 

Politics isn't a good topic on a gardening forum. There are many Conservative voting gardener's out there and on here..I'm one of them despite my disappointment of the current stupid 2020 garden party fiasco. If it happened as reported then I'd say they've got it coming. However despite that, i wouldn't vote Labour at this moment in time.
I hope your sweet peas do well.. I sowed some in November and they are bushing out some nice side shoots in the greenhouse right now.

 

Nigel - yes! I have done so. Just wondering what state they will be in when weather gets waremer. ie huge and hard to deal with by then maybe. I have them in long planters where they will stay: the key I found is just to keep them well watered. I did really well with them last year - one of the few! But I started them two months later in 2021 - and they carried on flowering well into October. Hey ho. I'll keep planting them over the next couple of months. I have a trellis fence up one side of the garden which has a trailer (and boat in the winter) behind it - designed to be removable to get the kit in and out beginning and end of the season (April/October). So I used the sweet peas to grow up the front of it last year - and it's NW facing so not too promising really for lots of annuals. Worked fantastically so I'll repeat.

Trying to think how rarely my experiments could be dscribed to have 'worked fantastically'

 

Presumably though they/you cannot abide the outrageous corruption, the spectacular thefts of public funds and the constant, instinctive and permanent dishonesty/lying? The use of extremist media to prop up a thieving cabal of the already very wealthy? The ignoring of appalling poverty (14 million in poverty in the UK and rising). The attacks on the independence of the judiciary and independent press? The total avoidance of accountability and introduction of voter suppression measures? The appalling lie of Brexit? (My own businesses have taken a huge toll from that piece of outrageous dishonesty). The stoking of culture wars for political gain?

The garden parties are truly trivial in comparison...

I'd not vote Labour right now either by the way.

Yes. True. And one of the joys of gardening is it allows me to get away from the appalling reality of our domestic politics which increasingly I cannot face.

When do you expect them to flower, having started that early? And do you transplant them? I will use my daff and tulip pots for them in due course (currently in use of course), but I understand that they don't like being moved - and presumably less so the bigger they are...