Larry’s Diary, Week Three Hundred And Thirty-Six

Monday

Good morning, my happy readers, and welcome to another week of “stuff” from your intrepid cat reporter. The sun was back to being rather warm again this morning, and I hear another heatwave is forecast for the South East. But there is a little good news for me to bring you. Mascara Man did an interview with leftie-loving Laura Kuenssberg yesterday and revealed that his dog, Axel, is to remain in Manchester. In some ways it’s a pity. I was looking forward to teaching him who the boss is.

Today’s six a.m. announcement is all about the one million young people on PIP. Apparently, it pays better than working on minimum wage. So, what is the Mascara Man going to do about it? There is no plan mentioned, but he says he plans to have fixed it by the time he leaves office. I suppose he had better get on with it then.

Here is a little something to think about. Why was the lease on No. 10 North signed on 11th May, days before the resignation that allowed Mascara Man to run for Parliament? How long did it take to set up the second floor of Heron House with all the signage, make the fake front door, print all the headed paper and other stuff, and recruit local people? Was the resignation of Legohead all a fix, or is there a genuine explanation?

The Farnborough Airshow is over, and the final numbers for aircraft orders are in. Airbus had the most sales with 154 planes, Boeing was close behind with 145, while Brazilian plane maker Embraer signed contracts for 84 aircraft. However, the numbers were heavily influenced by just one purchaser, an Irish aircraft lessor who purchased 100 Boeing 737 Max aircraft and 100 Airbus A320neo aircraft. Without that one purchaser, the numbers announced at Farnborough would have looked pretty sparse.

HMRC have confirmed that because the Winter Fuel Payment for all pensioners will go up to £300 this Christmas, they will automatically increase the repayments they take monthly from any pensioner earning over £35,000 per year. Currently, they recover around £17 a month in tax on the individual payment of £200 for the current tax year. But next tax year it will automatically increase to £33 per month until the £300 is recovered. Of course, this only applies to pensioners who earn over £35,000 a year. So, if your only income is the State Pension, you will not have to pay the money back. I wonder how much it costs HMRC to recover Winter Fuel Payments that people are paid but are not entitled to.

Back in March, the Indian Government said that the Indian Air Force had told them it needed to join one of the two European sixth-generation aircraft projects if it were to be able to battle Pakistan at some time in the future. The reason is simple. Pakistan is a client nation of China, and they are developing a sixth-generation fighter jet which Pakistan is almost certain to acquire. But why one of the European projects? Again, the answer is simple. Apart from the European and Chinese projects, there are only American and Russian planes being developed. The American project has not taken on any other nations and looks likely to be reserved for the US Air Force, as the F-22 was, while the Russians seem to be struggling with their project. Since March, the Franco-German project FCAS has fallen apart, leaving just GCAP for India and anyone else who cannot buy Chinese aircraft as an option. At Farnborough last week, the head of the project said it was open to other partners joining, but there were two provisos. One is cost sharing, and the other is a demand that anyone who wants to join must do so by the end of this year.

In the last 10 days, Ukraine has attacked seven out of the 10 largest Wildberries distribution warehouses in Russia. For those of you who have never heard of Wildberries, they are the Russian equivalent of Amazon, but also sell items that can be used on the war front by the military, including bulletproof vests and fibre optic wires for the control of drones. A few months ago, Wildberries changed all their contracts with suppliers who sell through the warehouses, making the traders responsible for their goods held in Wildberries warehouses. Consequently, when a warehouse is hit by drones and burns to the ground, many of the online traders are bankrupted.

Tuesday

Hi folks, there was no sun when I went out this morning, but it was still warm. There was Felix chicken in my bowl this morning, so I’m a happy cat. I see my new house companion, Mascara Man, is floating the idea of a 10% estate death tax. Of course, this would be on top of death duties (Inheritance Tax). As I understand it, Inheritance Tax has an allowance of £325,000 before it starts, and there are even total exemptions for an estate passed between a married couple. There are no real details of the proposed Death Tax at the moment, but I hear it would probably be levied on everyone upon their death. It would be charged at the rate of 10%, and there would be no exemptions and no allowances. This means that an old widow who has saved £2,000 from her meagre pension would have £200 taken from her funeral fund.

Over the past week, the number arriving by small boats has passed 1,000, and our new PM, Mascara Man, has yet to mention it. The cost to the country is amazing, £53,000 a year for each person. Why wouldn’t MM talk about it? Well, I think he realises that the country might have a new PM, but we still have the same number of Liebore MPs in Parliament, and they won’t let us stop the boats from coming over, or leave the ECHR. So he is just avoiding the question.

I’m beginning to wonder if we have bought the wrong airborne early warning aircraft. As you are no doubt aware, we have ordered three Wedgetail E-7A planes built by Boeing with radar from Northrop Grumman. The planes cost around £780 million each and are apparently very capable. However, like everything else, we have cut back on the original order from five to three to save money. But since we committed to the Wedgetail, nearly every other competition for an Airborne Early Warning Aircraft (AWACS) has been won by the Saab GlobalEye. First it was France, but this order was dismissed as the French being French and refusing to buy American. Then it was Canada, and a similar argument was made. Next, NATO announced they were going to replace their fleet of eight E-3 AWACS aircraft with the GlobalEye. Yesterday it was an unnamed Middle Eastern nation. They can’t all hate the USA. Maybe it’s because they only cost £500 million each, fly higher, need a shorter runway, fly faster, have a comparable radar, and only need seven operators compared with eleven.

Another great idea from Mascara Man. He wants fewer people to go to university and to get a technical education instead. I understand that the current system, where the whole purpose of secondary education is to push kids through GCSEs and A Levels and into universities, even if they do courses like “Underwater Basket Weaving”. But wasn’t the current system, where all the technical colleges that taught practical skills were encouraged to become second-rate universities, brought in by that hero of the left, Tony B Liar?

I read that the EU has got itself into a bit of a pickle over an alumina plant in County Limerick in the Republic of Ireland. The Aughinish Alumina plant imports bauxite from Brazil, refines it, and exports it as alumina, a basic product used to make aluminium. The problem lies in the fact that the plant is owned by Rusal, the Russian aluminium refining giant. A while back, the plant was accused of exporting alumina to Russia and breaking EU sanctions. An Irish Government enquiry reported that it had found no proof either way. Now the EU, which seems to believe the accusations, is in a cleft stick. If it sanctions Aughinish Alumina, it will be cutting off its own main supply of alumina and losing 460 jobs in the west of Ireland.

Today it has emerged that Nigel Farage has reported the Green Party leader, Zak Polanski (NHRN), to the police for threatening to decapitate him. The cuddly Green leader published a picture online of a supporter wearing a T-shirt with the words “We are making plans for Nigel” above a guillotine. Apparently, a spokesman for the Greens says the image has been taken down and Zak put it up by accident. Don’t I remember someone going to prison for words on the internet that were taken down within the hour?

Another day gone, and another day with Mascara Man ignoring the boats crossing the Channel. We had a sudden flood of boats at the end of last week when the wind shifted to a favourable direction. But it has changed again, meaning no crossings at the weekend. But, of course, the lefties on the TV can’t see how the crossings are largely weather-related. Instead, they claim it is the wonderful Liebore policies that have reduced the crossings. Why are they so stupid?

Wednesday

Good morning all. Today is supposed to be the warmest day of the week here in London, with the temperature forecast to reach the mid-30s. I have been pondering going on holiday to my scribe’s house in Worthing. It is only forecast to be a far more reasonable 24°C due to the sea breeze. I wonder how much the train fare is?

So, someone has finally managed to get an answer out of Mascara Man on what he is planning to do about the small boat illegals. There have now been well over 1,000 since he came to power nine days ago, including a big boat with over 100 people that came on a new route from Fécamp, in Normandy, a mere 82 miles away. So, what is MM going to do? Absolutely nothing. Apparently, he thinks the government is doing a good job, and the government’s plans are working. He is delusional.

Another new announcement from Mascara Man. He says the government is to pay £4,500 per annum to the parents of children who take up apprenticeships if the parents are in receipt of benefits. I find this a very odd policy, as some families on benefits are better off than those who aren’t. But I wonder where the idea comes from that there are thousands of apprenticeships out there for school leavers to walk into. How do they not realise that Robber Reeves’ economic policies have stopped people hiring young people?

In the US of A, the Federal Aviation Administration has just issued an Airworthiness Directive requiring the inspection of the seat anchors on all Boeing 737 Max aircraft in service. I understand that the problem is that the seat anchors can come loose from the track during an emergency landing or sharp manoeuvre. This is yet another problem that Boeing doesn’t need with the 737 Max. However, there is a little twist to this AD. It only applies to aircraft on the US register, as the FAA only has authority in the US. Most countries have an equivalent regulator. In the UK, it is the Civil Aviation Authority. I wonder if the CAA will copy the AD. The CAA and the FAA tend to work in lockstep.

Why is Ukraine sending hundreds of drones into Russia every day? It seems the plan is to make the Russian people realise that there are consequences to the three-week special operation in Ukraine. While the war was raging on Ukrainian territory and civilians in Russia carried on without being affected, all was OK, and the population had no reason not to believe what the government was telling them. The people started to complain only when, as a result of Ukraine blowing up refineries, petrol became in short supply. Now the drones have been taking out the Wildberries logistics hubs, people have been made bankrupt, and some goods are in short supply. The Russian internet is alive with people moaning, crying, and asking why the government is allowing it to happen. I wonder what the Russians can do about it.

A strange report reaches me from Atlanta, Georgia. A man returning from abroad was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the airport and subjected to a search. The CBP demanded his phone’s password seven or eight times, which he refused to provide. They are also reported to have refused the man access to his attorney. The man finally gave them a password, and it is believed to have been a so-called “duress” password, which wipes all data on the phone and resets it to the factory defaults. The GrapheneOS on the phone was a custom operating system available for Android phones. Samuel Tunick has been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) with obstructing an investigative process.

In Madison County, New York, the USA’s first commercial wind farm has just been decommissioned. The problem was that the turbines were now 25 years old and, whereas the seven turbines were producing 13 MW in previous years, they have now only been capable of producing under half of that, making them uneconomic. The main reason is that they are so old they were regularly breaking down, and spare parts had become impossible to source. So, what did the Yanks do? They blew all seven up, toppling them in just 30 seconds. The land has been cleared of all the remains, including a final magnetic search, and will now be returned to pasture.

Thursday

It’s a good morning to all my readers. Not quite so hot this morning as yesterday, and there is a pleasant breeze. I can’t wait to get my work done and get out onto the windowsill. I see the government is boasting about the Frogs stopping 46,000 people from crossing the Channel in small boats since Liebore came to power. But then I see a video of the French police standing around smoking Gauloises and watching the boats being launched, while 752 people crossed on Wednesday. Someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Yesterday morning, Mascara Man made a big speech about social care in which he said we need to set up a social care service that would look after people who are old, not so sick that they fall under the NHS, but still need caring for. Although he hasn’t yet said what he is going to do, he did say that it would likely cost £18 billion a year. But, once again, he didn’t actually say where the money would come from, although he did suggest that it could come from what he called a levy of 1.8% on wages. But this would actually be an increase in tax, which the manifesto said would not happen. MM thinks that by calling it a levy he can fool us into believing it is not a tax increase.

The Detailed Assessment of Costs in the Prince Harry (and others) vs the Daily Mail case opened yesterday. The Mail is looking for at least £18 million to cover its expenses and has asked for an immediate £10 million. As the Mail won on every single one of the 97 counts, I can’t see how they can fail to get every single penny they are asking for. But it won’t stop there. Harry’s mob will also have to pay their own costs for the four-year case, another £18 million perhaps, and who pays for the wasted court time? I assume that’s why people are saying it’s going to cost Harry’s side £50 million, of which Harry is likely to be liable for a personal £10 million.

Mascara Man is off to Barrow-in-Furness today to announce a story that has already been briefed to the media and is in every newspaper and leading the TV and radio news. He is going to announce a further £5.9 billion in contracts with BAE Systems for the Dreadnought nuclear submarines that are under construction there. The daft thing is that this is part of the £35 billion that was already announced in 2016 and is just the next tranche of payments, £8.5 billion to all the main contractors and subcontractors, and was always going to be due about now. It is all planned spending and not new money, as MM would have you believe.

I have been looking at the TV news, and it is full of reports about wildfires in France and Spain. Of course, we have had a few as well, but not as many or as bad as those on the continent. However, every time these fires are reported, someone has to talk to the “Environment Reporter”, who inevitably says the words “climate change”. But this is where it gets interesting. According to the US fire-watching satellites, 2026 has seen the fewest wildfires in recent years. So, what is going on? The fires seem to be down to a few things, but environmentalists have to take a lot of the blame. They have stopped a lot of undergrowth, fallen branches, dead wood, and dried leaves from being cleared for “environmental” reasons, and it is this that encourages wildfires. But the most devastating bit of information is that, in the last three weeks, the Frogs have arrested 169 people for starting fires.

Taking the previous story a bit further, I was watching a report on the fires on the moors up in North Yorkshire. Fortunately, the fire they were talking about had been extinguished and was just smoking a little on the skyline. The landowner was saying they had managed to act quickly before the fire had ignited the peat under the bracken. But he firmly laid the blame for the fire on the Liebore government. Apparently, since coming to power, they have stopped issuing permits for controlled burns. In previous years, a controlled burn removed the fuel used by wildfires and left the moss and peat untouched, thus allowing the moor and wildlife to recover quickly. Once again, the Green Lobby are blaming climate change when it is really their decisions that are to blame.

I have read this morning that there is yet another country looking at the GCAP project. This time I was a little surprised, as it is not one of the nations you would have expected. I understand that Singapore has entered exploratory talks with the GCAP consortium. Singapore has quite an advanced air force and will soon be operating a mixed fleet of F-15SGs, F-35As, and F-35Bs. I suppose the question is whether what we are calling the Tempest will fit in with those aircraft. As the UK aims to have both the F-35A and F-35B, I suspect the answer is yes.

Friday

Hi everyone. Sunny and not too warm, just pleasant, this morning. So, the government is trying to tell us they have sent over 76,000 illegals out of the country since they came to power. However, Immigration Watch says that the number is misleading, as it includes the 60,000 who left the country voluntarily, and the government had no idea many were here until they left. It also includes others who were paid to go. Only around 16,000 were enforced removals.

Good news for Rolls-Royce coming out of Czechia. Rolls-Royce already has an agreement, in conjunction with its partner ČEZ, for a two-unit SMR station at Temelín, in the South Bohemian Region. The Czech Government has just signed an agreement with ČEZ to allow work to begin at two more sites, each with two Rolls-Royce SMRs. The sites are at Tušimice, in the Ústí nad Labem Region, and Dětmarovice, in the Moravian-Silesian Region. This means that Rolls-Royce now has six reactor orders in Czechia, three, with an option for another three, for the UK at Wylfa in Wales, and three for the west coast of Sweden.

It was Rolls-Royce’s half-year results, and they were excellent, with operating profit up 46% to £2.5 billion and the full-year prediction increased to between £4.7 billion and £4.9 billion. If you own their shares, the half-year dividend is up from 4.5p to 6.0p a share. They are now the fourth most valuable company on the UK stock market. Don’t forget, I am a cat and I am not making any recommendations, only reporting the results.

Here’s a story from the “You couldn’t make it up” department. Several NHS hospitals and doctors’ surgeries have stopped doing blood tests because it is too hot. The problem is that the blood goes off too quickly in the heat. So why are the rooms where the blood is taken so hot? It’s because the NHS has swallowed the Net Zero nonsense and has banned the use of air conditioners on NHS premises. So, next time the doctor orders a blood test for you, you had better hope it is not a hot day.

I was amazed to read that FIFA were planning to sell off the World Cup to a private company and, in doing so, make Giovanni “Gianni” Infantino a lot of money. Infantino sprung this plan on the various football associations and demanded they agree in quick time. Infantino gets a lot of support from the African and Asian football associations, so he hoped that he could drive the idea through. But UEFA has just told FIFA that if it doesn’t drop the plan, all 55 of its member nations will vote against it. FIFA has 211 member nations and would need a majority to proceed. I have heard that the Asian members have also voted to oppose the plan, and that is another 47 nations. Together they are not quite enough to defeat the proposal, but it will only take six more nations to vote it down.

I have been reading a study of the effects of wind turbines in corn fields in the American Midwest. It seems that during a recent heatwave, where temperatures reached over 100°F, the plants downwind of the turbines, for about a quarter of a mile, tolerated the heat better. The scientists discovered that several things were happening. The air over a field normally becomes stagnant and heats up at ground level, but the turbine blades pulled in cooler air from higher levels and mixed it, making the air downwind cooler and more suitable for the corn. But other things were also happening. Less frost was forming in the airflow, and dew was dried more quickly. The drier plants suffered less mould, and the farmer had to spend less money drying the crop to the moisture levels the buyers demanded. Mind you, there was no mention of the cost breakdown of all this.

Here is a little oddity that I learnt today. Operation Sunrise, the Australian airline’s plan to operate non-stop flights from Australia to London and New York, is only possible because of an airport on Easter Island, which is 1,617 miles from the next nearest runway at Totegegie Airport in French Polynesia. The plane that makes Operation Sunrise possible, the A350-1000 ULR (Ultra Long Range), is a twin-engine jet, and twin-engine planes can only cross vast distances over water if there is a diversionary airport they can reach in the event of losing an engine. The A350-1000 ULR has an ETOPS rating of 370 minutes. That means it can fly for just over six hours on a single engine. Mataveri International Airport (IPC), on Easter Island, is the only available diversionary airport for much of the route. I hope that it doesn’t suffer tropical storms and stays available.

Saturday

Morning, my friends. It’s the first day of the month, and my old mother cat used to tell me to say “White Rabbits” first thing, before saying anything else, for good luck. It seems to be working today because the weather was very nice when I popped out, sunny and pleasantly warm.

A strange tale reaches me from Washington, DC. The Donald wanted the huge “Reflecting Pool” in front of the Lincoln Memorial to be refurbished for the 250th anniversary of the USA and had a US flag blue liner installed. However, the water has suffered an algae bloom and has turned green. The bloom was blamed on a damaged liner, and a 67-year-old man, David Hearn, was accused of deliberately damaging the liner, which he denied. He admitted reaching into the pool and touching the liner, which he said was already damaged. Yesterday, the authorities dropped the case after the company that installed the liner admitted they had done a botched job and damaged the liner during a hurried installation. I wonder if Hearn will now have all his legal costs reimbursed.

While in Washington, I hear of a bit of confusion at Washington National Airport involving three American Airlines flights. Two flights, 4702 and 4752, were holding off Runway 4 and Runway 1 respectively, while another flight, 3101, was cleared to land on Runway 1. The air traffic controller gave permission to 4702 to move out onto the runway and hold at its end. But 4752 thought the message was for it, and both flights moved onto their respective runways. Fortunately, 3101 saw that the runway ahead was blocked, reported it to ATC, and was told to go around. I suspect the crew of 4752 will be in trouble, but they clearly misheard the message.

The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has scrapped his plan to sell off the World Cup. It seems he hadn’t reckoned on the almost universal condemnation of his idea, and not even the £30 million bribe he offered national football associations, if they signed up to his idea by 13th September, worked. To most of the big associations, £30 million was peanuts and would never be a deciding factor. However, Infantino hoped small associations like Cape Verde could be bribed, but it seems not. Even his deputy has resigned, and people have started calling for Infantino’s head. So, he is now back-pedalling like mad to save his £4.46 million-a-year job. So why did he propose the scheme? Well, I read he was lined up for a £47 million-a-year job with the proposed World Cup company.

Ships sailing close to offshore wind turbines are reporting a strange new phenomenon, dense sea fog banks downwind of the turbines. At the moment, scientists have no real understanding of how or why this is happening. There are several theories, though. The main one is that the turbine blades are whipping up the seawater and blowing it out behind them in the form of fog. Of course, this is very dangerous for shipping, so the sooner we learn if this theory is correct, the better.

Last week, Russia lost one of its Su-57 fighter jets in a crash 40 miles from the centre of Moscow. Of course, the Russian Government says it was an accident, but I have read a lot of speculation on Telegram from Russian milbloggers that it was shot down by a Russian air defence missile. This would be bad news, but perhaps not as bad as it having been an accident. Russia has about 32 Su-57s in service, and this is the second to have been lost in an accident. That is a terrible accidental loss rate of 8%. By comparison, there have been 11 F-35s lost from 1,345 built, which is well under 1%. But today I have read that one milblogger is saying that it was a Russian air defence missile that brought down the Su-57, but the missile had been hacked by Ukraine and made to attack its own side. I’m not sure which is worse, the hack or a plane accident.

For my last story this week, I have news for those of you who like Formula One and dogs. You may remember that Lewis Hamilton’s beloved bulldog, Roscoe, died from pneumonia about ten months ago. Well, I hear that Hamilton has decided the time has come to replace him. The new dog is a female Golden Retriever puppy that he has named Halo. The dog has come from a breeder in California and is going to be trained in New York before it is hoped she will be able to accompany Hamilton to the various F1 tracks, like Roscoe did.

I’m done for the week, and it is still very nice here in Downing Street. I am beginning to like these long weekends under Mascara Man, when he disappears to Manchester on a Friday and leaves me in peace. It’s time for my nap on my favourite windowsill. It is pleasantly warm this afternoon, perfect for an outdoor snooze. Chat to you all again next week.

 

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