Larry’s Diary, Week Two Hundred And Ninety-One

Monday

Good morning, friend, and it is a very pleasant one—dry, warm, and sunny. Legohead is off to Scottishland later to talk to the Donald, who is over to open a new golf course, so it is ‘unofficial business’. I see the Donald has slated him in for a whole 20 minutes, which is very generous of him. I understand that Legohead wants to talk about Gaza and Ukraine. What a waste of time, when he could be talking about trade and illegal immigration, which are far more important to British people.

I watched the final of the Women’s Euros on the TV yesterday teatime, and I’m glad I did. It was so nice to see England winning something, and those girls spoke so well—no ‘you knows’. The best bit for me was the girl who scored the winning penalty saying she was ‘proud to be English’. You don’t hear that very often these days.

This morning, it has emerged that in several Caribbean countries, including St Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, and St Kitts & Nevis, if you buy a house for about £250,000, you have the option to take out their citizenship while retaining your British citizenship. I reckon that’s a great deal. Not only do you get to live in the sun, with beautiful beaches, but there is no inheritance tax. I wonder if someone emigrating wants to adopt me.

Over the weekend, there was a lot in the media about how the Corbyn/Sultan’s party is now bigger than Liebore. Well, it is not really true. First, it is not even a registered party. Next, it seems that they don’t even have a name. The launch under the ‘Your Party’ name was apparently a ‘holding name’, and the real name is yet to be decided. I rather like some of the suggestions, like ‘Jezbollah’ or the ‘Sultana and Nuts Party’. But what I was really going to say was that 300,000 people have submitted the online form to register an interest. Well, I say 300,000 people, but there has been no check on names or the country of residence, so one person in Gaza could have registered 300,000 times! I wonder how many sign up when it costs real money and only British nationals are allowed.

The organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed an action against the Maine Lobster Festival, claiming the festival is torturing lobsters by steaming them to be eaten. PETA wants the Knox County Superior Court to declare the festival a ‘public nuisance’ and ban them from steaming lobsters on public land. They claim that 16,000 lobsters are cooked at the festival each year, and this is torture, while the festival organisers claim there is no scientific information that lobsters feel pain. I shall watch this one with interest.

I just watched the Donald and Legohead on TV, and the Donald rather embarrassed Legohead, who didn’t like it when he was told he wasn’t doing things correctly. He was letting in thousands of immigrants, he was charging too much for green energy from wind turbines by subsidising it, and he was killing agriculture. But the best bit was when he called Sad Dick ‘a horrible little man’, and Legohead said, “He is a friend of mine.” Then Legohead defiantly crossed his arms and looked like a naughty schoolboy in the headmaster’s office. It could only have been better if the Donald had brought out a cane and given Legohead six of the best.

North Ayrshire Council has decided to go green by running its fleet of 36 bin lorries fuelled on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). The council has even claimed that the move will reduce carbon emissions by 90% and CO₂ by 2,500 tonnes a year. HVO is created by treating waste cooking oil and animal fat with hydrogen to make a fuel that diesel engines can use without special conversions. It’s claimed that much of the imported HVO contains used rapeseed oil, which is universally criticised for destroying rainforest. North Ayrshire Council are not boasting about how much rainforest they are destroying.

Tuesday

Good morning, everyone. It’s a bit grey and grotty this morning, with a bit of rain in the air. Legohead is extremely grumpy this morning. It seems he had a bad day yesterday. He chose to go to Scottishland to meet the Donald and got humiliated, when he could have stayed in London and hosted the Number 10 reception for the victorious Lionesses. Instead, that job and the associated good publicity went to the Ginger Growler. He was in Basle for the match, but you wouldn’t have known it, as the TV crowd pictures concentrated on Prince William and Princess Charlotte. What a winner she was. I wonder if she is any good at football.

I was a little annoyed yesterday afternoon when some idiot decided to cover up my favourite windowsill with a flag of St George. They even hung bunting on the railings. I know that they were trying to look patriotic for the reception for the Lionesses, but whoever was in charge didn’t think about upsetting the Chief Mouser. I decided on a lie-down protest and sprawled across the doorstep all afternoon. Mind you, some of those Lionesses are rather nice and can party better than the Ginger Growler.

With the success of the Lionesses, I suspect that there will be a few medals being handed out, if the last Euros win and being finalists in the World Cup are anything to go by. The rumours are already circulating, and leading them are MBEs for Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton. If truth be told, Kelly was very unlucky not to get an MBE for the first Euros win, so she should be a shoo-in this time. But what about Captain Leah Williamson? Well, I’m betting on her MBE being upgraded to a CBE, and manager Sarina Wiegman, a Dutch citizen, can expect to be upgraded from an honorary CBE to an honorary damehood.

You might remember me telling you last week about the authorities in Barcelona trying to reduce the number of visitors by reducing the number of cruise terminals, and me saying the residents will complain when jobs are lost. Well, I learn of something similar happening in Majorca. There have been several anti-tourist demonstrations across Spain, but particularly in Majorca. Unsurprisingly, the number of visitors has dropped off sharply, with many choosing other countries. Now, people in the Majorcan tourist trade are complaining about deserted resorts.

I read that there has been a huge bloom of duckweed in the Stourport Basin, where the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal meets the River Severn. The authorities say it is one of the worst outbreaks they have ever seen. So, they employed a special boat to collect the weed that completely carpeted the basin. Apparently, they managed to remove over 80 tons of duckweed.

The Office of the Rail Regulator has given three open access operators on the East Coast Main Line extra services. Lumo, who run trains from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, will be able to run them on to Glasgow and to run extra services to Newcastle. Grand Central can extend their service to Seaham, and Hull Trains can run an extra train a day between Hull and Kings Cross. Mind you, it has still not been made clear if open access will still be allowed when we have a fully nationalised Great British Railways.

If you visit London now, you will see a bale of hay hanging from the Barnes Railway Bridge. The bale of hay is a warning to boatmen that work is going on the bridge and it has reduced headroom. But why is a bale of hay used and not just a warning notice? It seems it is a requirement of the Port of London by-laws, but why it’s there is lost in the annals of time. Isn’t it about time this by-law was updated?

Wednesday

Hi folks, a little grey this morning with the possibility of showers. I see that after Legohead’s disastrous meeting with the Donald, the government tried a couple of distraction tactics yesterday. Firstly, it was the recognition of the Palestinian state, something that doesn’t exist. Then it was the dead cat on the table of accusing Nigel Farage of ‘being on the side of Jimmy Savile’ over the deeply flawed Online Safety Act. Things are going from bad to worse for Legohead.

Boeing has announced that it has received an order for 25 aircraft from Bangladesh. This is an interesting development, as the main Bangladeshi airline, Biman, only has a small fleet of 15 aircraft and not many of them are more than a few years old, so they don’t need upgrading. In fact, they had been looking at replacing a few of their older aircraft and expanding their services a little, and were talking about 14 new planes. So why the jump to 25? The answer is that Bangladesh has calculated that a big order for American aircraft will put them in a good position when negotiating on tariffs with the USA. I somehow think they may have wasted their money.

The RAF is looking for a replacement for its Hawk trainer. The plane was designed and manufactured by BAE Systems, but production finished some years ago and BAE haven’t got a replacement design to offer. In the US, Boeing have teamed up with Sweden’s SAAB to build the T-7 jet trainer for the USAF and have an order for 351 production aircraft, another 125 options, and 46 simulators. They also have versions on offer to the Navy, Marines, and for an advanced jet fighter. Although the plane is still in development and only two prototypes and three pre-production aircraft exist. Now I hear that the Boeing/SAAB consortium is in talks with BAE to offer the T-7 to the RAF. I can see this approach working, as it would save money for all parties.

Rumours say that the Wales family are considering moving, as their current home, four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage, is becoming too small for the family. The favourite for a new home, also on the Windsor estate, is Fort Belvedere, an 18th-century house that has eight bedrooms, each with a bathroom opposite, and staff quarters. The house has been empty for some time, so will need a lot of work before it is habitable. But it has enormous grounds, including a very large outdoor pool that the children will love. It also has a tennis court and a Turkish bath. Other advantages are that it is only a ten-minute walk to Windsor Castle, a short drive to Charlotte and Louis’s school, and it is close to Eton School, which George is said to be starting at in September.

The government seems a little surprised that the implementation of the Online Safety Act has led to a surge in the number of VPNs in use, and say they will think about banning them. But perhaps they should have a word with their own National Cyber Security Centre, who recommend that individuals should use a VPN to protect themselves, their devices, and their data. I wonder how they would be able to ban the use of a VPN if it were installed before the government got around to banning them.

Arsenal signed a new centre forward last weekend for £55 million, but look to be already recouping a large sum in shirt sales with his name on the back. Viktor Gyökeres likes to wear the No. 9 shirt, but that is already in use at Arsenal by Gabriel Jesus. So instead, Gyökeres has chosen to wear the No. 14, as previously worn by Thierry Henry. To encourage people to buy a Gyökeres shirt for a mere £85, either through their website or in person at one of their stores, they will customise the shirt with ‘Gyökeres 14’, free of charge, saving another £16 for a few days. Apparently, there has been a huge rush for sales, outselling any previous signing. They are not saying how much they have raked in, but I do hear the website was so busy it crashed.

Although the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia seems to have died down, it looks like it might have paused the Thai request to Sweden for SAAB Gripen JAS 39 aircraft. Thailand already has 11 x JAS 39C in service, and reports say they used them to bomb Cambodia in the recent border war. Back at the end of June, Thailand announced they want to buy 12 more JAS 39s, but this needs Swedish government approval. Because of the short war, a decision is on hold, because the Thais had the audacity to use the plane for what it was designed. If foreign customers are not allowed to use the plane for what it is designed, it can only lead to a collapse in export sales.

Thursday

Hello folks, it’s quite nice now, but I understand that we have a ‘yellow’ weather warning for mid-morning, with heavy rain showers forecast. So, the numbers for the population for the year to June 2024 are out, and it’s up 700,000. Surprisingly, the increase is almost all because of immigrants. Add this to the previous year, and the population has gone up by 1.5 million in two years. It’s a disaster.

Last week, Legohead was before a Commons committee where, in answer to a question on where all the migrants currently in hotels were going to be housed when the hotels are closed, as he says is going to happen, he replied ‘in empty houses’. When the committee chairman asked where these houses are, he couldn’t answer and promised to write in with the answer. Now I see the government has announced that, due to the chronic housing shortage in this country, they are taking over unused railway land to build 40,000 homes. We have ‘plenty of empty homes’, so why are we going to build 40,000 more?

I read of another Boeing 737 Max problem that the makers have chosen not to document in its training or maintenance manuals. It seems that in a situation where the plane loses an engine due to a turbine blade breaking, the cabin or the cockpit can quickly fill with toxic smoke. The sequence of events is usually caused by ingesting a foreign object, such as a large bird. The blades on the engines of a Max are very much bigger than the engines of earlier versions of the plane, and if one fails, it tends to throw the big inlet fan out of balance. If something is not done, the vibration will wreck the engine. Consequently, there is an undocumented piece of equipment that detaches the huge inlet fan from the rest of the engine to stop it damaging the rest of the engine. But this dumps hot lubricants into the bleed of air-conditioning air, which vaporise. Depending on whether it is the port or starboard engine that has failed, the toxic vapour is either pumped into the cockpit or the cabin. I read the FAA has issued Boeing with paperwork for an urgent fix.

Back in 2015, Pakistan placed an order with China to purchase 8 x Type-039B diesel-powered submarines, the first of which was to be delivered in 2022. Well, it is now 2025, and Pakistan is still waiting for its first boat to be delivered. The first problem occurred almost immediately when the Germans, who made the giant diesel engines the Chinese version of the submarine uses, declined an export certificate. This meant the submarine had to be redesigned to take the much noisier Chinese SMD-24 engines. Although the change makes no difference to the two weeks the boat can be submerged, it makes it much easier for their potential opponents to find. The other problem is that, while six of the hulls are being fabricated in Karachi, many of the systems are being supplied as ‘black boxes’ by China. But the worst problem for the Pakistanis is that, in the intervening period, the Indians have been preparing. They have bought a dozen American anti-submarine planes, with another six on order. They have installed a network of hydrophones. They have built a fleet of anti-submarine corvettes and frigates. But perhaps most deadly to the Pakistani submarines is the Indian radar satellites that can spot the snorkels the submarines must use and zero in, via the network the Indians have also built, the nearest Indian asset. It looks to me that these submarines are obsolete before going into service.

Earlier this week, there was a report of stabbings at a house in Southwark, in London, where two men died and a third was hospitalised. The police now say they have arrested a 27-year-old man. No other information has been released; no ethnicity, no name, nothing. I thought that when those little girls were killed in Southport, it was realised that not releasing information about the perpetrator led to riots, and the police said they would change this practice. But what has become noticeable in recent incidents is that if the perpetrator is white, his full name, sex, age, ethnicity and lots more are released. But if they aren’t, you only get their sex and age. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I read that the Lionesses will each get around £73,000 from the prize money for winning the Euros, peanuts when compared to what the men earn. But that’s not all they will get, as the girls will also share another £2 million from pooled social media payments and even more from sponsors. Interestingly, several of the players are already millionaires, having contracts with their clubs for up to £250,000 and advertising contracts with many companies, from motor manufacturers, fashion houses, soft drink and crisp makers, sporting goods makers, and burger chains. I wonder if any of the rich girls want to adopt a mouser who would love to live in luxury.

I have been reading about a US Secret Service agent who tried to smuggle his wife on to the Donald’s trip to Scotland. Apparently, he paid for his wife to fly from their home in Texas and into Andrews Air Force Base, where Air Force One is based. That was the easy bit, as he is in the USAF. She then attended a briefing for people going on the five-day trip, but was discovered when she tried to board a support plane that carried staff and baggage across the Atlantic. The US Secret Service has now launched an investigation into the incident.

Friday

Hi everyone, a pleasant morning here in London, even if it looks like it could rain later. I suppose that rain wouldn’t be a surprise, as there is a Test Match at the Oval. Talking about sport, I see the new football season officially starts tonight with the first of this season’s English Football League games. I must admit that there doesn’t seem to have been a break between the end of last season and the start of this, what with the World Club Championship in America and then the Women’s Euros. At least the women’s league doesn’t start again yet. They begin in September, so they can at least have a couple of weeks partying in Ibiza before getting back into training.

Airbus has announced that it has rearranged the production of some of its A320neo aircraft because of a shortage of engines. The manufacturer offers the various versions of the A320 with a choice of either the CFM Leap engine or the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G geared turbofan. About 60% of customers choose the CFM and 40% the P&W, and the latter engines have a problem. P&W engines suffer several disks cracking in the high-pressure section of the engine. An investigation has revealed that the powdered metal used to produce the sintered part had been contaminated for a period between Q4 2015 and Q3 2023. There were well over 1,000 engines produced in this period, and every one needs to be pulled from service and inspected. But this has had a knock-on effect on Airbus A320neo deliveries, as existing P&W engine customers have demanded repaired or new unaffected engines from P&W. This means a shortage of new engines going to Airbus, resulting in Airbus currently having 60 completed planes without engines (gliders?) and unhappy customers. This is all proving very expensive for P&W, as each shop visit to check the engines takes a plane out of service for over 200 days. P&W has already made a $3 billion contingency, and the trade says they don’t think that will be enough.

Speaking of aero engines, I hear that Rolls-Royce has a capacity problem with a very full order book. As a result, they are going to spend £30 million increasing production and hiring another 100 employees at its Dahlewitz facility near Berlin. The factory mainly services both civil and military engines, but it also assembles some of the big Trent 7000 engines that power the A330neo. The plant has already had around €5 billion invested in it, so the new money is peanuts.

I learn that Robber Reeves is planning to freeze income tax thresholds again in the Autumn budget. When she does this, it will result in state retirement pensions being above the threshold, so dragging pensioners into paying tax. I know that many people with private pensions already pay income tax, but by this move she will bring, for the first time ever, the state pensioners into the income tax bracket, paying about £500 tax a year. That is basically a £10 a week reduction in your pension.

Freely, the internet-based replacement for Freeview, has until now only been available to people who bought a new TV with a built-in receiver. But I hear that later this year they will be launching a set-top box that will turn any existing TV into a Freely TV. However, when you read about a set-top box, you probably think of something big, but this will be a small device like the Sky Stream box. I hear the Freely boxes are currently being produced by Netgem, and a launch stock is being built up. Of course, there is one advantage to buying a Freely box, in that it has a one-off cost and then no cost for using the service, except for the need for a TV Licence.

I see that part of the EU trade deal with the United States includes the EU purchasing $750 billion worth of energy by 2028. This includes buying oil, coal, gas and nuclear fuel. In Ireland, where the greenies have quite a loud voice, they are already complaining. Not about buying coal, as I would have expected, but the possibility of US LNG finding its way into the Irish grid. What is wrong with this LNG? Well, apparently it could be fracked, and fracked gas is ‘harmful and worse for the environment and human health than more conventional drilling methods.’ I defy the Irish consumer to tell whether their LNG has been fracked or not without being told.

I hear that with this week’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Pacific coast and the subsequent widespread tsunami warning, I hear of the panic on two cruise ships moored in Hawaii. Many passengers were ashore on tours when the warning sirens went off, causing the trips to be immediately terminated and the coaches trying to get the tourists back to the port. But in the meantime, port authorities had told all ships in port to put to sea immediately, where they could more easily ride out the expected huge wave in deep water. This had the result of some people having to run down the pier to get on the boat, but over 600 passengers were left behind. Fortunately, the alarm proved to be unnecessary, and the ships will return to pick up the passengers as soon as the ports have been declared safe.

Saturday

Good morning, my happy readers. Very nice sunny morning, I hope it lasts. Today I hear the ironic news that Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, our anti-corruption czar, is to go on trial in Bangladesh for corruption. Of course, she denies the charge, but I very much doubt she will be going to Bangladesh to defend herself. She claims it is a political thing, and she is only being charged because her aunt, who was PM, is also under corruption charges. Are we about to lose another Liebore MP? There doesn’t seem to be a week where they don’t lose one or two.

It is now three months since Liebore last topped the national opinion polls, and even then they were in a tie with Reform. Since then, every single poll (72!) has had Reform in the lead. At first, it was only by one or two per cent, but as time has gone by that has increased and has recently reached as much as 14% over Liebore. What is interesting is that the big leads used to be in what is regarded as ‘lesser’ polls, but now even the big boys like YouGov, who were one of the last to reflect the Reform lead, now have them leading by 7%. I saw a flash poll taken the day after the Sultana and Nuts party were announced, and this had them and Liebore both on 15%, with the Tories on 18% and Reform on 32%. It’s no wonder that Legohead has announced that he wants to recognise a Palestinian state, a S&N policy. I loved the letter from 40 leading Liebore peers to the Government’s chief legal officer, pointing out that under international law this recognition would be illegal.

I hear that Liebore has agreed to pay out over £2 million in compensation and legal fees to 20 people it featured in a leaked internal document on antisemitism in the party. Included in the payouts is Patrick Heneghan, who was falsely accused in the dossier of having tried to sabotage Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of winning the 2017 general election. But in addition, Liebore has had to write off another £2.4 million it spent in preparation of a case against five other people it was accusing of leaking the 800-page document, but later dropped.

The European Central Bank is currently trying to decide on the design of its next issue of euro banknotes. At the moment, there are two options based on one of two themes, either ‘Rivers and Birds’ or ‘European Culture’. There is a row between Poland and France over Marie Curie, who would appear on the €20 note if ‘European Culture’ is chosen. M. Curie was a Pole whose maiden name was Skłodowska. She later moved to France where she met and married Pierre Curie and went by the name Marie Skłodowska-Curie. It was only after Pierre’s death she adopted the name Marie Curie. Now the French want that name on the note and Poland wants Marie Skłodowska-Curie. If I were the ECB, I would opt for the easy life and choose the ‘Rivers and Birds’ theme.

Huge numbers of migrants crossed the Channel in small boats since Wednesday. Over 1,690 arrived here, and what do we do with them? We put them in hotels, and that costs the taxpayer an average of £40,000 a year per person. Here’s a few statistics for you. There are at least 210 hotels being used to house the 110,000 illegal immigrants the government says are waiting for a decision on claims to be refugees. One interesting thing is that the number being granted asylum has fallen from 76% to 48%, which is still higher than any other European country.

Another failing government policy seems to be our energy policy, where Red Ed Millipede has shut down North Sea oil and gas at what seems to be a cost of 200,000 jobs. What the government has done is force us to import gas to replace what we are not taking out of our own waters. It has been announced that we now have a contract to import £20 billion worth of natural gas from Norway. This is all because of the Millipede’s green fervour. We now have the most expensive energy in the world while sitting on oil and gas in the North Sea. Of course, I haven’t even mentioned the 125 years of gas under our feet if only the government would allow it to be fracked.

I see the Employment Tribunal in Scottishland, where Nurse Sandie Peggie’s case against NHS Fife is being heard, has been adjourned. You probably remember this is the case of the nurse who objected to NHS Fife expecting her to share a changing room with a transwoman (a biological man) doctor. Reports from the Tribunal have been interesting in that NHS Fife and their counsel seem to be insisting that, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling, a transwoman is a woman. The judge has gone on the record saying the Supreme Court ruling was “contentious”. The group who won the Supreme Court ruling, For Women Scotland, have pointed out that should Peggie lose the case on the grounds that the doctor is a woman, the judge’s remarks have already opened the door to an appeal.

Well, that’s me done for the week, and it’s the windowsill for me this afternoon, today, as it is still quite nice out there. I think that it’s going to be a lovely afternoon for a snooze. Chat to you all next week.
 

© WorthingGooner 2025