Builder Director walks off with £75 million: but houses are fire hazards

As the 2019 election progressed, the various parties promised much. Let us examine just one aspect of those promises; namely Housing.

Labour promised to build, over the next decade, a million new homes in a Social Housing Campaign.

Lib-Dems promised 100,000 homes for Social Rent each year, for a total of Half-a-Million over the Election period. Actually, as the LIB-Dems stood absolutely no chance of gaining power, they may as well have promised equality with Labour, because that’s all the promises were worth: Hot air!

The Tories didn’t promise anything, excepting a White Paper, and a move towards cancelling the ability of landlords to kick tenants out without a long notice period.

The problem with politicians and their promises, especially with building and buying homes; is that none of the whole lot in the last or indeed the present Parliament has ever held a job which results in someone actually living in a house which they have had a physical hand in building. They may have learned about the law regarding buildings, and the many pitfalls therein, but unless a man has had to figure out which bit goes where, how bricks are laid, how concrete is mixed, delivered and set in place, how toilets, sinks, plumbing and central heating actually works, he isn’t worth a bucket of spit on a building site.

 

I was trained as an Engineer, and have been involved in engineering processes throughout that same life. One of the first things which was drilled into me, was the simple truth that no-one can be trusted to do a job correctly without supervision. What is perhaps, more important than that truth, was the second truth, that the supervisors themselves must have been trained on those same jobs which they are inspecting and supervising. To put things fairly simply, the one-hundred-and-one parts of a house come together with skilled men, working under close and constant supervision, to provide a product which used: I repeat ‘USED’, to be a byword of competence in Great Britain. The presence of a snagging list was literally unheard of on most large building sites where thousands of houses were built by British working men, proud of their knowledge, skill and attitude towards a day’s work.

 

Consider the delivered product of a large builder such as Persimmon Homes. In years gone by, headlines such as Persimmon Homes from Hell would be literally unheard of, but incredibly, similar .headlines appear with alarming regularity. At a housing project site in Cornwall, the headlines told homeowners that the properties they had bought were to be inspected because  Cavity Fire Barriers, standard products for wood-framed homes, were thought NOT to have been installed, and all the homes were to be inspected and brought up to standard.

 

An ‘Independent Review’ commissioned by Persimmon, found that the lack of Cavity Fire Barriers was endemic across all Persimmon building sites. The Review stated “Persimmon has a nationwide problem of missing and/or incorrectly installed cavity barriers in its timber-frame properties”, the review said. The report added that while the firm had reacted quickly when this problem had been identified, it had only inspected the eaves of properties, and not assessed whether the same problem was occurring in party walls and around windows and doors.

 

This is the same Persimmon which was verbally slammed for initially proposing a £110 million bonus to its CEO, a bloke called Fairburn, and still paid him £75 million in the full knowledge that he presided over this regulatory and safety shambles.

 

To come closer to home, a close relative bought a house, and the main faults which rose were shoddy work on basic plumbing connections and works. But what was worse was the simple fact that nothing was accessible for repair. A cistern repair meant the entire back wall of a staircase had to be cut open to gain access. This operation wasn’t done once, but twice, both upstairs and down. Outside water pipes remained unprotected until the owner complained to the Company director. The list went on and on. But the laughable things, (well, not laughable to the new owners maybe) were the advertising booklets which spoke of ‘Luxury in every respect’. Nothing complained of was ever approached until the head office was involved; and even then reluctantly.

 

And this is the so-called workforce which was going to build a million houses in ten years, if you believed Labour’s promises. Perhaps the Tories were at least being honest, in that they knew the category of the present British working man, and decided to stay ‘Schtum’! Myself, I am glad my working days are over, because I have seen the modern product offered, and disliked it intensely!

 

Obituary: David Bellamy; silenced for being a ‘Denier’!

In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads. Such arguments in support of their fixed idea … gain their instant acceptance and applause. On the other hand whatever is brought forward against it, however ingenious and conclusive, they receive with disdain or with hot rage – if indeed it does not make them ill. Beside themselves with passion, some of them would not be backward even about scheming to suppress and silence their adversaries. I have had some experience of this myself. … No good can come of dealing with such people, especially to the extent that their company may be not only unpleasant but dangerous. Galileo Galilei

There once was a well-qualified scientist. 

His Qualifications and titles included OBE., BSc., PhD., Hon FLS,. DSc., DUniv., C.Biol., FIBiol., FRIN.

   Hon: Professor Adult and Continuing Education-University of Durham. Special Professor of Geography University of Nottingham. Hon Professor of the University of Central Queensland.  

   President of The Conservation Foundation, Durham. Surrey and Birmingham Wildlife Trusts, Coral Cay Conservation, National Association for Environmental Education. British Naturalists Association, Conservation Volunteers of Ireland, British Institute of Cleaning Science, British Home and Holiday Parks Association, Camping and Caravanning Club of Great Britain.  

   Vice President British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Fauna and Flora International, Marine Conservation Society, Australian Marine Conservation Society, Wild Trout Trust, Countrywide Holidays Association.  

   Trustee of the Living Landscape Trust, Hon Fellow Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. Honorary Member of the Emirates Environment Group.     

He is an international consultant, author of 44 books, writer and presenter of some 400 television programmes on Botany, Ecology and Environment. 

   Recipient of the Dutch Order of the Golden Ark, the U.N.E.P. Global 500 Award; The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for Underwater Research; BAFTA., Richard Dimbleby Award., BSAC Diver of The Year Award, RGS Busk Medal. 

His name? David Bellamy.

For many years, David Bellamy was a constant upon television, especially the BBC. Any Natural History programme, Children’s programmes including “Blue Peter’, he was never far away. He was a ‘natural’ when it came to putting over his viewpoints on Botany, Biology, the wonder and nature of trees: his views and statements were welcomed, sought after. He was courted by the famed and the famous. His views on both habitat and the environment were absorbed so well because of his manner of speaking, as an ordinary man, as ‘one of us’. His contemporary was David Attenborough. Between them, they had the ‘natural world’ all sewn up, and shared between the two of them.

But then came the utter tragedy, the betrayal of all that ‘the Majority’ spoke for and accepted. He said that, in his opinion, the whole premise of Global Warming, of Climate Change, of the theories put forwards by ‘eminent’ scientists about the effect of Man, in the guise of the emission of Carbon Dioxide was mistaken, the whole idea that Carbon Dioxide was the accelerant behind the melting of the ice-caps, of the diminution of huge glaciers was; simply: POPPYCOCK.

His broadcasting and television work dried up, he was scorned by the BBC, ITV followed suit, he was lashed by the ‘climate change’ troll brigade for daring to speak out, to speak his truth, in the face of ‘The Accepted Science’ as known by all these ‘scientists’ who get their funds from, Promoters of ‘Climate change’; who else.

He was a truly nice man and bore the scars with humility. But, just for the sheer hell of it, I give you two things with which to ponder the past, and indeed the future. In one of his interviews, he said:-

“Climate change is happening, it’s been happening all the time there has been a climate, and there certainly is a period in recent times when it appears that the temperature is going up and up.

“But I would show you this one thing out of the paper – strawberries in December, frog spawn in February – not 2007 but 1868 and no one blamed global warming then. I have asked the global warmers how to explain facts like that and they always don’t give me an answer. So I am a sceptic. We have got to get this thing argued out in public properly and not just take one opinion”

In fact he believes that the Earth is heading for another ice age and then temperatures will cool down.

He said temperatures are going up and down all the time and he does not think it can simply be blamed on the amount of carbon dioxide being produced.

What he thinks are responsible for rising temperatures are sun spot cycles.

He said: “The sun is getting old and it is getting warmer all the time but we do have cycles of sun spots and when those sun spots come the effect is to warm the Earth up and warm the atmosphere.

“They are big flares, there are enormous flares, it’s an atomic powerhouse – you can actually see them – they are enormous eruptions. At least half of the temperature rise that we have seen correlates with these sun spots.”

What he passionately believes is that the subject should be properly debated and not just one side accepted without that.

He said: “We have got to get this thing argued out in public properly and not just take one opinion.

“Science works like that. Science is wonderful because you can argue with people and when you got proved wrong you went away with a bloody nose but you looked up to that scientist even more and you tried to get your research right.

“And I don’t actually think we have been given, and especially the public, has been given a fair whack of the other side.”

He said he would like people to be given the other side of the story and let them make up their own minds.

But he says he is used to attracting derision for his opinions on the subject. He said he has had problems getting papers published which go against the view that global warming is due to carbon.

He said: “We are labelled climate sceptics, heretics. In fact some people have said we should be tried for crimes against humanity because if we don’t stop something which perhaps isn’t even happening, millions of people are going to die.

“I honestly think it’s appalling that we have been told by some pretty top people that global warming is going to kill billions of people in the future and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

He adds: “I think it’s pure scaremongering and I would stay stop it until the debate has been had in public and we can come out with a real scientific consensus of fact.”

But he said he supports the move for people to take measures to conserve energy. One area he believes should be concentrated on is looking at using tidal power to provide energy instead of the more popular method of wind power.

The second is an interview which he did with an Irish tv show, and this is what he said then:-

 

Rest now; you fine, upstanding man; your time has now run, but they may well regret shunning you in decades to come!

Labour’s Promises……..Reality

When gazing in a mirror whilst trimming my beard, I admit that time has indeed marched on. My hair and beard are either silver, or snow white. Ever more, I look back upon my life, and examine the times which I have lived through, and noted how things have changed, usually for the worst. We do, as a Nation, live longer, mainly due to advances in medical technology, but these advances are, unfortunately, skewed towards the better educated, as well as those wealthier than the poorest. The life and the Body Politic have changed, in so many ways in these Islands of ours; so much that if a man who lived in, say the Nineteen-Thirties was transported forwards, and deposited in this year of Twenty-Nineteen: he would hardly recognise that this is the land of his birth. Changes almost beyond belief have been wrought; some for the best; but most bending towards the destruction of what was once known; in my eyes: as civilised society.

Take just one item from the morass of bits of our very lifestyle which have been subject to the slow, insidious grasp of the Liberal Left, and you may agree with this writer that ‘Change’ has not altogether been for the best. I can only speak of my own experiences in Education, but I believe that my upbringing had much in common with the wider community. Primary school was where we learned the Three ‘R’s: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. There was discipline, there were no rowdy interruptions, we called the teachers ‘Miss’, ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Sir’; with absolutely no exceptions. The teacher’s voice was the only one heard, unless and until a common question was asked, and usually a forest of hands shot up in response: because no-one spoke without invitation, and we all waited until addressed by our name before replying. We learned by rote; by lists, by those ‘Times Tables, by learning, off by heart, small booklets full of the ‘most difficult’ words: and no-one jeered, or laughed, or disrupted the class! No-one ran inside the school buildings, because to run was to be uncouth, to be ill-mannered. We ran, and played, and talked outside; gaining, without ever realising or noting the fact that we were exercising, muscle tone and strength.

Moving on, as I did, to a Grammar school, or as most of my friends did towards a Secondary Modern school, we were all subject to varying models of discipline, but, again, we learnt by reading, by example, by observation. True, in the Grammar school which I attended, the physical side of the ‘discipline’ model tended more towards the back-hander across the ear, or in my own case being knocked unconscious for the ‘high crime’ of ‘disrespecting the teacher by lifting my desk lid before he was out of the class. But, I lived through it, and, I suppose, looking back from fifty years of life’s hard knocks; we came through with a healthy respect for rules, written and unwritten.

Fast forwards some fifty-odd years, and take a good, hard look at modern British schools, the (allegedly) comprehensive education system, and the hold which the Left commands on schools in general, teachers, the curriculum, how it is taught, and the very ethos of how our children are ‘educated’. Schools are crippled by league tables, exams are dumbed down and ‘well meaning liberal’ teachers refused to discipline black children for fear of being called racist. In the average state school, the kids would have had their studies disrupted by kids who didn’t want to work in classes run by teachers who couldn’t keep discipline. Discipline is a term so foreign to the State school set-up as virtually all of the teachers, never mind the kids; would not know what it means, never mind how to spell it. Bullying, of the weaker by the strong, is rampant, and the futile and feeble attempts aimed at grappling with this alarming problem are almost laughable; inclusive of such crap as Anti-Bullying Strategies. My approach to bullies is, understandably, old-fashioned in that physical force is used against proven bullies: but that ideal is so far away from present-day realities that it can be discounted. A close friend has a grandson attending a school which also caters for ‘Special Needs children’. He enquired why his grandson wasn’t showing any improvement? The Answer? The class contains disruptive kids who cannot be controlled; the lessons were interrupted, and the learning curve was disrupted!

But now we have a new role-model: a former marxist teacher who was fired after stating what she considered to be the absolute truth regarding the education establishment. A black educationalist who refuses to stick to the mould. She stuck to her guns, made her case, established a brand-new ‘Free’ school in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in Greater London; and this year, the first in which her pupils won through to receive the best results ever in GCSE examinations. Her school is named Michaela, her methods are strictly old-school. No more is the idea that anything goes in That School. 

Results Count,  which is why Michaela’s Head teacher can post this on her Twitter feed:-

Why does the success of the Michaela School so infuriate the left?

 

Because though the headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh is black, she’s the wrong kind of black: a conservative who doesn’t believe in playing the race card or identity politics.

Because though the kids come from largely working-class, migration-background families, they are the wrong kind of working-class immigrants: ones who don’t know their role is to be victims and to blame their failures on racism and government inaction.

Because though the results are some of the best in the country, they were achieved using the wrong kind of methods: not the “child-centred”, supposedly creativity-nurturing, discipline-lite laissez-faire approach as recommended by the leftist educational establishment — aka the Blob — but with teaching methods so rigorous and demanding that classes are like a cross between a Trappist monastery and a Marine boot camp.

The derisive comments come thick and fast, such as:-

 

Some one needs to educate this head teacher that for kids life is much more than bloody discipline and GCSE.

You only have youth once.

Say no to educational robots.

This school will always be oddball.

It will never catch on.

 

And so on, and so forth.

But Katherine marches onwards, defiant and certain that her methods and ideals work, and her ever-supportive parents are right behind her.

The question must be asked, would this fantastic school’s educational achievements ever catch on? Even under a Tory Government, with an enlightened Ministerial hand on the tiller; I would give it odds of 100/1 against. The grip of the Left-wing on the whole of the education system, certainly in England, is so strong that it would take decades to rid ourselves of the Socialist ideals which have been fed so skilfully into the minds of teachers and pupils who, at present, don’t even know or understand what pap is being fed them: all under the guise of an ‘Enlightened System of Education’.

Surprise: Muslim Jihadi lies, then kills the fools who thought Jihadis were nice guys, but ‘just misunderstood’

The dead are not even cold, as they lie in the morgues, before the tributes to the gullible are being scattered around like buckshot. “ the organisers were present at Fishmongers’ Hall, and added: “Of course they [organisers] are absolutely devastated by what’s happened. “ as well as “”Jack lived his principles; he believed in redemption and rehabilitation, not revenge, and he always took the side of the underdog.”; and “Miss Jones, a volunteer with Learning Together from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, was described as having a “great passion” for providing support to victims of crime by her family.” The headlines talk about two ‘Idealists’. I would prefer the alternate term, ‘Do-Gooders’

We are also told, in grave and saddened tones, that a vigil shall be held in remembrance of the dead and injured, as well as the brave public respondents who hosed the stupid bastard down before the police ramped up, and by those armed police shooting the scumbag in the head; DID WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE EIGHT YEARS AGO!

The clowns who sat, posing in all their Liberal stupidity, in the Fishmongers’ Hall, were discussing  prisoner rehabilitation schemes such as ‘Learning together’. Well, being blunt, I hope they have learnt something concrete about the gullible being led by the stupid; but I doubt it very, very much. Just concentrate, for a second, and ask yourselves why this murderous piece of garbage was sent to prison in the first place. He, along with his eight co-conspirators,  were convicted of planning to set Pipe Bombs in or around the London Stock Exchange. The four would-be murderers from Stoke all did a ‘deal’ with the CPS and the Judge, whereby they were told what maximum sentence they would get if they pleaded guilty. Upon the ‘deal’ being made, the trial was halted, the jury dismissed, and the agreed sentences imposed. The ‘DEAL’ was done, and instead of a regular trial, where the ferocious intent of these murderous Muslims would have been brought out in open court, they were allowed to plead ‘guilty’, and the sentences were quietly imposed with virtually no publicity at all. However, the Judge, because Usman Khan was said to be more dangerous, his sentence was said to be ‘Indeterminate’. This meant that the total time of the sentence could be increased, if the prisoner showed no possibility of repentance.

 

Khan, along with Nazam Hussain and Mohammed Shahjahan, appealed against their sentences and had the indeterminate sentences dropped by the Court of Appeal in 2013.

Lord Justice Leveson found the original decision had “wrongly characterised” the three men as more dangerous than the other defendants.

In his judgment, he wrote: “Although we recognise that training terrorists in the use of firearms could only lead to potential loss of life… the fulfilment of that goal was further removed and there were other obstacles.” Mr Justice Leveson ruled the three men should have been given determinate extended sentences, finding that Shahjahan now had to serve 17 years and eight months and Khan and Hussain had to serve 16 years.

The nine men sentenced in February 2012 were sentenced under law from 2003, which said people given extended sentences would be released on licence at the midway point..This meant that Khan only had to physically spend eight years in prison, taking into account the 408 days he was behind bars before his trial. The law covering extended sentences was changed in December 2012, but Mr Justice Leveson used the previous law in the appeal as it was the one used at the original sentence.

Mr Justice Leveson, sitting with Mr Justice Mitting and Mr Justice Sweeney at the appeal, said: “There is an argument for concluding that anyone convicted of such an offence should be incentivised to demonstrate that he can safely be released; such a decision is then better left to the parole board for consideration proximate in time to the date when release becomes possible.” 

However, he then decided that while the risk to the public was clear, the three Stoke defendants were no more dangerous than their co-defendants – who were then eligible for automatic release without involvement from the parole board. 

So Khan went free after eight years, and he fooled the gullible Social Justice camp by even writing bloody poetry; but the single worse thing was to follow, HE GOT PERMISSION TO TRAVEL TO LONDON TO ATTEND THE FISHMONGERS’ HALL MEETING UNACCOMPANIED. 

 

The rest is history. He tied one knife to his hand with tape, then armed with two knives, he began his murderous rampage against the very people who had so foolishly given him their trust. Fortunately, there were some individuals with bigger balls than normally issued; they tackled him, and forced him out of the meeting hall; trained fire extinguishers upon him, and held him until the police arrived. Upon sight of the fake ‘bomb-jacket’ he was wearing, the police took the only action possible: they shot the murderous bastard in the head.

But what should we, as a nation, learn from this atrocity? A few things, to my own mind.

• No terrorist should ever be believed.
• The ‘Do-gooders’ of this world should be rudely woken up, and told their ‘services’ are no longer needed.
• The law should be changed so that well-meaning but stupid Judges cannot overturn a sentence, even though they might not like it.
• The Justice system must be turned to face reality, and that any convicted terrorist should face life, and what is more ‘LIFE WITHOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF PAROLE’!
• An acceptance, by ALL Political Parties, that Radical Muslim Terrorism exists as a factor, and there should be no accommodation for this murderous philosophy.