The Christmas roundabout that started in August is now in full swing, the yearly threat, signifying there will be shortages during the festival, has this year gone into top gear and recently added a fuel crisis to the list of things that will be in short supply. Of course the farmers have joined in the skirmish by threatening an absence of your veg at the dinner table.
The normal end of summer threat that there will be a scarcity of toys at Xmas has been making the news for weeks, but is any of it true or is it just a ploy by the suppliers to ensure that you shop early, helping with their bottom line.
To add to the so-called shortages is the universal lack of lorry drivers to operate the big trucks that deliver the goods to the supermarket, and just to round things off and to try and really bring the country to a stop, there is currently a dearth of worldwide energy.
Most of, if not all of these situations, are caused by allowing the development of monopolies, from road haulage to food and energy suppliers, which has evolved over many years.
In real terms there is nothing new about the current crisis as similar events have seem to happen about every eight to ten years.
There were many similar instances before the year 2000 which confirm that, but since the turn of the century there have been a number of crashes, all having major effects on the economy.
In 2001 the twin towers in New York were brought down by terrorists, causing a run on the economy and the stock markets.
2008 Lehman Brothers banking went broke, causing worldwide disruption to the money supply and the stock market losing its charm.
2013 another crisis, this time a technical thing with the Americans raising their debt ceiling and creating uncertainty. Of course, last year the Pandemic hasn’t helped the international flow of money, but I think that what we are seeing is the powerful, in the background, those who do not like Brexit, and will do anything to destroy it. Also the present United Kingdom Government’s authority by any process, and if that means a shortage of fuel or goods then so be it.
It reminds me of the Barons of long ago living in their secure castles, protected by soldiers, not caring about the serfs on the outside, if and how they were making a living.
Let me tell you a story. It was a few years ago and I have lost count of the number of downturns in the economy since then, but this one was caused by the lack of oil as suppliers in the Middle East and elsewhere quarrelled about how much to produce, keeping the supply low and forcing prices up.
With a friend I was on a yacht in the North Sea. It was late in the day, we were journeying across the waters from the Essex Coast to Ostend in Belgium, travelling by wind power and leaving the fuel crisis behind, as the cost of petrol was reaching new heights daily, with similar scenes as those currently being seen, with petrol stations closed and those with the liquid, servicing endless queues at the pumps.
We were about halfway through the journey, certainly too far from the coast to be seen by the naked eye, as we were beyond the normal eyesight because of the curvature of the earth, when we came across large oil tankers. There were four we could see as it was dark and maybe more out of our sight, all firmly anchored lying very low in the water, pushed down by the weight they were carrying. An oil crisis contrived by others.
Without a doubt this downturn will come to an end and people who have stockpiles will not have to go shopping for a while, and the normal motorist will settle down to their once a week buying a couple of gallons of fuel at the pump.
People will get used to the change of the new type of petrol at the pumps and everything will be back to normal, until the next crisis.
Although perhaps this one has more legs to carry it forward as more vehicles shrug off the requirement of oil produced products, depriving the producers of their income and the Government of its tax revenue. No doubt there will be new fees and taxes to replace the losses, all at a premium.
Aldershot Lido:
Sometimes a story comes along, where it is difficult to understand people’s thinking. In this instance a couple, having tried very hard to pay homage to glasses of booze, thought it was a good idea to hurtle down the pipes in the nearby Water Park, the ones that children normally have fun in during the holidays.
The middle-aged pair, Claire Vickers, 46, and Barry Douglas, 44, sneaked into Aldershot Lido to have a ride in the flume tubes at two o’clock in the morning, not realising there was no opening at the end as it had been shut off.
They were both lucky they did not go down headfirst otherwise they would not have survived, as they now have severely broken legs and ankles.
These two people heading, for fifty years of age, are acting like spoiled children and see no wrong in their action, like so many others in this new order of thinking and are blaming the park for its lack of security.
They do not think it is their fault for entering and trespassing in the enclosure when it was closed and propose to sue Aldershot Lido for their negligence in not making the property secure.
Sport:
It seems sport in New Zealand is seen differently, for Laurel Hubbard who is a transgender woman and whose body is the opposite, has been named Sportswoman of the year – ‘sport’ a word for fair play but not in this instance.
Take care
Facebook.com/percy chattey – writer and author whose work is available on Amazon and Kindle.
