Ethan Crumbley, 16, Will Plead Guilty To Murder And Terrorism Charges

Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley will plead guilty to murder and terrorism charges, evading a trial.

He was not offered any plea deal and is expected to spend the remainder of his life in jail.

It’s unclear if he’s reached any form of a plea deal that’s incentivizing him to plead guilty.

Unlike Florida, where Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz barely dodged execution last week, Michigan doesn’t have the death sentence.

Crumbley’s parents have also been charged in the shooting he carried out at Oxford High School.

They’ve been charged with permitting him to have access to firearms and failing to intervene, even on the day of the carnage.

They’d been called into the school to discuss his demonic scribblings on workbooks, where he’d penned about dark thoughts that just wouldn’t stop, and instead of taking him home that day, they left him in school and promised to pursue counselling for the lad.

He then opened fire on classmates, killing four of them. Sixteen-year-old Crumbley is due in court on Monday.

This child’s life is over before it even began, and perhaps if he’d got the support that was needed these heartbreaking and tragic killings wouldn’t have taken place, and obviously he’s an extremely sick individual.

Clearly, the parents had no control over him or just didn’t care, especially having firearms in the home, which is fine for protection but when children are in the home, firearms need to be locked away.

What this child did was bad, we can all agree with that, but his parents need to be held accountable for the role that they played in this complete tragedy, and for totally failing their child.

Knowing what you’re doing takes a healthy and aware person, and clearly, this child is not, and an abused and neglected brain does not form well, and will never reach that point, which means that this child was in survival mode. I’m not condoning what he did, but he never truly stood a chance with parents like that.

And as much as I hate to say it, the school are also guilty and should be held responsible. They contacted the parents because they could clearly see that something was very wrong, and they should have had security search him before they let him back into the classroom.

Obviously, this child was begging for help, but no one did anything. He was saying that the voices kept coming, but nobody did anything. An ambulance should have been called immediately and he should have been forcibly committed so that he could have a lengthy evaluation at a mental hospital.

This is disgusting and this is a tragedy that could have been prevented.

The child was asking for help, he was literally begging for help and no one did anything, and what’s more, the school knew there was a serious situation, and if the parents refused to take the child home, they should have called Child Services, but of course, let’s blame the gun!

A ‘Churchillian’ Return To No.10 Is In The Works For Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson was reportedly planning an extraordinary political comeback last night as he privately urged Conservative MPs, including his rival and odds-on favourite Rishi Sunak to support him in the race to become Prime Minister following Liz Truss’s humiliating resignation only 44 days into the job.

Just weeks after being pushed out, and telling the House of Commons: ‘Hasa la vista, baby!’, Boris Johnson is said to be shoring up alliances by insisting he’s the only contender who can win an election against Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer.

Nevertheless, he will need the support of at least 100 MPs if he wants to become only the third prime minister in history to return for a second time after leaving office, following in the footsteps of his hero, Winston Churchill, and Labour’s Harold Wilson.

While it’s believed he already has the support of 50, compared to Rishi Sunak 39, the possibility of a Boris comeback has forced other Tory MPs to threaten to resign and trigger by-elections, with one branding him ‘ego on sticks’ and another telling him to ‘go back to the beach’. Boris Johnson is presently away on holiday but is said to be planning a speedy return amid the Tory’s latest leadership crisis.

In a bid to mend divisions in the party, he’s reportedly pressing Rishi Sunak, his former Chancellor, to reach out and ‘get back together’. The remarkable olive branch follows months of feuding after the former chancellor was accused of ‘knifing Boris in the back’ when he dramatically left his cabinet post, sparking a ripple of resignations that eventually overturned Boris Johnson’s premiership.

It comes after a source said Boris Johnson admitted he’d made mistakes and he would now be willing to reach out to talents across the party and be a healing, unifying leader.

However, friends of Rishi Sunak doused hopes of a happy reunion, telling a newspaper outlet that while he wants to bury the hatchet, his plan was to become Prime Minister so that he could get on with the task of rebuilding a battered economy.

A source told a newspaper outlet that Rishi Sunak also had his eyes on another possible teammate, Penny Mordaunt. However, she was said to be rejecting his attempts to form a joint ticket, as the current Leader of the Commons and didn’t want to play second fiddle.

Boris Johnson isn’t the best solution, but at least the British people know what they’re dealing with if Boris gets back in, even if he is the biggest liar in history. Although, wasn’t it Tony Blair that was the biggest liar in history, or has everyone forgotten?

Boris Johnson has been an international embarrassment, and Rishi Sunak stabbed him in the back, but what choice do we have? Shrek or Donkey.

Boris Johnson has been fired from almost every job he’s ever been in, all you have to do is Google his employment history and why he left.

He lied to his wife and children and cheated on his wife. He lied to the Queen to keep parliament open and lied to his cabinet, his party and his voters about attending drinking events during the lockdown.

He lied to the public about protecting our borders prior to Brexit and he lied to Brexit voters about having an oven-ready deal, and anyone who still believes he’s a man of character is fooling themselves, and just when you thought Great Britain couldn’t get any more embarrassing they announce that Boris Johnson wants to become Prime Minister again, it’s so funny, it’s unbelievable, and then people wonder why the world is laughing at us.

AA Chief Says More Cycle Routes Would Benefit Drivers As More Riders Choosing To Bicycle Could Help To Reduce Congestion

The AA’s chief has said more cycle routes will help British motorists as they will ease congestion and save money, as the Government discusses cutting walking and cycling scheme budgets.

The motoring organisation’s president Edmund King said that drivers taking fewer short car journeys and cycling instead would decrease road congestion and spending on home fuel costs.

Edmund King said every motorist is a pedestrian and most cyclists are motorists, therefore it’s in everyone’s interest to level up walking and cycling infrastructure.

He said by creating new routes, as well as investing in existing paths and footways, they can create a safer, greener transportation network that aids all road users, and that maintaining the £4 billion funding for those projects will also enable motorists to save money on fuel or electricity.

According to AA research, their members are most likely to consider replacing one car trip a week with a bicycle ride, with 47 per cent considering the possibility.

Replacing car journeys with an e-bike ride comes in a close second with 41 per cent of members stating they would do so.

His comments came after a call on the Transport Secretary’s ‘protect and build’ on £3.8 billion of funding for active transport development in England ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget-balancing later this month.

The call in a letter to Anne Marie Trevelyn spearheaded by walking and cycling charity Sustrans was co-signed by Mr King alongside pro cycling and road safety charities, the Federation of Small Businesses, the CPRE and other campaigns.

According to research by Sustrans, walking and cycling generated an economic benefit of £36.5 billion in the UK.

In a new report, they urged the Government to improve pavements and cycle paths and introduce a voucher scheme for walking, cycling and wheeling equipment.

The letter co-signed by Mr King said that the AA, along with other signatories needed to stop pitting motoring against walking, wheeling and cycling.

It read that cycling and walking infrastructure unlocks housing developments giving people more choices in how they travel and connecting them to work and education.

He said that walking, wheeling and cycling also revitalise the high street with people walking on average spending 40 per cent more than those who drive.

The letter continued that they have to continue to invest in active travel programmes and infrastructure to give people a genuine choice to leave the car at home for shorter trips and better link them to public transportation, saving fuel costs for when they actually need it whilst also ensuring access to jobs and services for those without access to a car.

This chimes like an extremely good idea because there would be more cycle lanes and fewer motor vehicles. It’s good for fitness, air pollution and motorists sick of being stuck in traffic jams or trying to get around cyclists, but who’s going to pay for all of this?

And if this does happen, when is McDonald’s going to let cyclists in the drive-thru?

The problem is bicycles haven’t caught on as a transport solution, and if it’s raining there are no cyclists about. Oh, look, it’s winter, no cyclists about.

The other thing is that those people making these decisions need to tackle the issue of accountability for cyclists as well, especially if they use parts of the road, then why shouldn’t they have to pay something for it? What happens if a cyclist hits a car? There’s no insurance or identification on a bike either, running red lights and listening to music, all these problems need to be addressed.

The Reasons Tourists No Longer Want To Visit Australia

A shortage of nightlife, exorbitant airfare prices and the emergence of more affordable options have seen Australia become an afterthought for international tourists, with the country’s tourism board launching a new ad campaign in a frantic endeavour to lure foreigners.

Despite borders reopening to the world in February, the appeal of heading Down Under remains considerably lower than pre-pandemic levels.

There were 326,000 international arrivals during July 2022, 59 per cent lower than the same month in 2019 (790,360).

Over the 12-month period ending in July this year, there were 1.5 million visitors to Australia, down an incredible 84 per cent from 2019.

With growing inflation and cost of living mixed with a declining cultural pull, Australia is at risk of losing its place as one of the world’s most beloved travel termini.

Sydney’s contentious lockout laws proved a sledgehammer blow to the city’s international attraction, with Australia’s most visited metropolis all but closing at midnight.

The 2014 legislation, brought in after a series of alcohol-related violence in the Harbour city, implemented nightclubs and bars to stop any new customers from entering past 2 am within designated regions of the NSW capital.

Venues outside the lockout area would then impose their own lockouts, unable to financially afford to remain open with less foot traffic.

The end result saw many of Sydney’s most treasured bars and clubs shut their doors permanently, while the international destination of Kings Cross became an unrecognisable ghost town.

A 2021 Committee for Sydney report found that 68 per cent of the population thought less of the metropolis because of its lack of nightlife.

Timeout released its index for international metropolia and their after-dark offering, with the website ranking Sydney 47th out of 48, beating out only Boston in the US.

Sydneysiders cited several reasons for the dwindling state of its nightlife, including excessive drink prices, rideshare costs, aggressive bouncers, and simply preferring to remain local.

Dating apps have also affected patrons, with people less likely to go clubbing to find a boyfriend or girlfriend because they can just swipe right on their phones.

Women, in particular, say they feel less safe visiting venues in the CBD, largely to do with having to catch public transport to and from the metropolis.

Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moor said the lockout laws had a profound influence on its international marketability.

Even Australians are finding out that they can’t afford to live there because it’s become one of the most costly countries on the planet altogether.

Australia is a wonderful country and the people are also great, but it’s become extremely pricey. It also has a lot of red tape bureaucracy and silly rules.

Australia was once a fantastic country. It was fun, there’s sunshine and beaches but now with all this COVID folly, it’s really gone downhill.

The trouble is we have been suffering from too much government interference, and it doesn’t matter what country you live in, it affects all avenues of life. Our economy is whipped and now it’s destroying our spirit.

Australia isn’t the lucky country it once was. Now, it’s one of the most costly places to live and visit with new laws made on a daily basis with so many rules and regulations, policies and procedures, and now it’s been over-governed to the brink of madness, and it seems that at the moment you need a licence to scratch your neddy in Australia.

Australia is beautiful, but compared to other countries, it’s expensive to eat out, drinks are extremely costly, and far too often the service there is a lot to be desired, it’s also an extremely expensive place to get to from most other countries.

Edible Insects Are Being Considered By Aldi

Budget supermarket Aldi is contemplating trading edible insect recipe kits as the cost of living crisis hits families.

Bugs such as crickets are known to be an affordable and sustainable form of protein.

Now Aldi is considering whether to stock products by Yum Bug, which makes the insect recipe kits.

Yum Bug founders Aaron Thomas and Leo Taylor, both 28, are competing against other start-ups to get their products on the supermarket’s racks.

The pair were selected from hundreds of applicants to appear on Channel 4’s ‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’.

Hosted by Anita Rani, of Countryfile and BBC Radio 4 and Chris Bevan, of Britain’s Best Home Cook and Eat Well for Less, the six-part TV series sees suppliers compete in categories such as dinners, baked goods, treats and store cupboard essentials.

Products are given to Julie Ashfield, Managing Director of Buying at Aldi UK, who deliberates on factors such as price, packaging, shopper demand, and the ability to scale up, before whittling contenders down to just two.

The finalists are then given four weeks to address any feedback, before presenting improved products to Julie who determines which product will appear as a Specialbuy in over 970 stores.

Mr Thomas, from Islington, London, said they were on a mission to alter perceptions of insects as food, and that they were one of the most sustainable protein sources in the world.

He said that crickets are up to 70 per cent protein, which is three times the amount of protein found in beef. They’ve also got more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk, and the inventory keeps going, and they’re an amazing superfood.

He said that they want to take bug consumption mainstream and that if they were able to get in front of Aldi’s audience, it would be an incredible opportunity.

Mr Taylor said that he and Aaron had been cooking with insects for years, it began in 2017 at weekends experimenting out of their parent’s garage, cooking up all kinds of recipes and posting content online. He said they then sold their first insect recipe boxes out of their bedrooms in lockdown, and that’s actually when everything snowballed.

Aldi says the competition was part of its commitment to locally sourced products. It’s pledged to prioritise homegrown suppliers as it works towards spending an extra £3.5 billion a year with British companies by the end of 2025.

Of course, Bill Gates will love this. It’s what they want us to all eat, and you will own nothing, be happy and be a slave to the bourgeoisie elites, and consuming bugs has nothing to do with the cost of living or saving the world with carbon reductions. Its goal is a form of ritual humiliation. The masses eat insects and the civilised elites dine on steak.

While it’s true that in some countries they do eat insects, in numerous countries they do not, but now they’re endeavouring to make it a reality because some people are so determined on messing around with the food chain.

But this is how social transformation is exploited. On TV, in magazines and in the news, but will they really persuade everybody that consuming bugs is the best thing to do because we’re in a crisis? Of course, they will, they will just target the masses. They’re already pushing it into schools because if they get them while they’re young, then they won’t know any different. Our children don’t belong to us anymore, they belong to our governments, and if we’re not careful, next the governments will be getting us to eat each other.

I Have A Right To Live Here

A French migrant who sneered at the offer of a five-bedroom house has refused to rule out adding to the eight children who’ve already enabled him to claim more than £100,000 in benefits.

Arnold Sube is looking to move out of the three-bedroom property where he’s presently living in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, having blown his £15,000 savings on private rent within a few weeks.

He’d originally been renting privately after moving from Paris to study mental health nursing but had his £1,278 per month rent covered by the local council as soon as he’d lived here for the mandatory three-month period.

Luton Borough Council has offered him several five-bedroom properties, but the 33-year-old is holding out for more, despite threats that he might be made homeless if he doesn’t accept an offer shortly.

He told a newspaper outlet that he came here with £15,000 and he paid by himself but after a few months, he applied for a house on benefits.

He said that he loves working, and that he’s been working for the last 13 years, and that his intention was to just live and study while his family were still in France, but his wife couldn’t do it.

Mr Sube also refused to rule out adding to his family, which already consists of his wife Jeanne and child Mejane, 16. Fabian 13 years old and Analia, Prosper, 10, Dylan, nine, six-year-old twins Sharon and Stacy, and three-week-old Mary, saying you just never know.

The ex-warehouse worker doesn’t understand why numerous Brits look down on him and claims the French would be extremely welcoming of incoming UK families, as all his children will have jobs and pay taxes when they grow up.

He said that he wants to make a contribution to society. That he doesn’t like lazy people and that his father told him to work hard.

The NHS finances the annual £9,000 cost of his three-year degree.

The family received more than £100,000 last year in benefits and while they waited to move into their present home Luton Borough Council accommodated them for nearly four months at the town’s £160 per night Hampton by Hilton Hotel.

However, Luton Borough Council this week gave an ultimatum to the pair, either they accept a formal offer of another available four or five-bedroom property or make themselves intentionally homeless. They will then be required to find their own home again through the private rental market.

This man and his extremely large family are the reason why this country can’t look after its own. He and his family are a drain on this country and it doesn’t matter where they come from, it’s rather evident that he has no intention of working.

His earnings alone wouldn’t sustain his family, so he will likely remain unemployed deliberately, and he’s obviously working the UK system, he’s milking it, and to add insult to injury he’s hard-faced about it. No wonder they’re queuing up at Calais to come here because after reading about this man, they must think that the streets of Britain are paved with gold.

The only thing that this pair should be entitled to, is a trip for the snip.

Of course, I have no problem with people having large families so long as they can afford them, and if migrants want to come to the United Kingdom then they should have to prove that they can work, they have a job here already waiting for them, and that they can sustain themselves, and that if they can’t, then they shouldn’t be allowed in, but they do get in because our Government allows it to happen.

The Final 999 Call Of A 94-Year-Old Carpenter Waiting For An Ambulance

Ninety-four-year-old Kenneth Shadbolt rang the emergency services after falling at home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, in March and said he couldn’t move.

BBC listeners heard the harrowing 999 call of a dying patient waiting for an ambulance.

Kenneth Shadbolt, 94, rang the emergency services after falling at home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, in March.

The retired carpenter told the call handler that he was getting worse by the minute.

He said that he was laying on the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor because he’d had a nasty fall. Then he said that he felt terribly sick and that he was in terrible pain, and that if he had to wait another half an hour, he’d likely be dead, and that he had a headache, and then told the call handler to send the undertaker because that would be the best bet.

Then he said that he couldn’t move at all and that it was getting worse and to send somebody fast.

The call handler told Ken to take care and said they would send an ambulance as quickly as they could.

Tragically Ken was unconscious by the time an ambulance arrived five hours later and he passed away in the hospital.

Ken’s family said the failure of paramedics to turn up quicker disgraced our health services.

The call aired on BBC Radio 4’s ‘File on 4’ as it went on the frontline of the ambulance crisis.

Kenneth’s son Grahame said earlier this year that his father would never kick up a fuss, but even though he wasn’t complaining, he was obviously saying he needed assistance.

Grahame said he was alone, increasingly distressed, and vulnerable, and he had every reason to expect an ambulance in good time, but that it didn’t come and it was a disgrace on our health service.

His younger son Russell, 64, said that it was bad enough to lose a loved one but to think of his dad lying on the floor injured and terrified was so very hard.

He said they were brought up that you went to work, paid your taxes, and had faith in the NHS to be there when you needed it, but it simply wasn’t.

There were also several years ago, the harrowing calls of a pensioner who died waiting for an ambulance that never came, it was revealed.

Michael Green made two emergency calls for help before he passed away at his Stocking Farm home.

Nine months later, the family of the 74-year-old were still demanding explanations from the East Midlands Ambulance Service, Leicestershire Live reported.

In two distressed and distressing calls recorded by East Midlands Ambulance Service, given over to his family, he could be heard painfully begging for help.

Michael Green, who suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and pancreatitis could be heard telling operators that he’d been stuck in his chair for five hours with a table pressing against his neck and that he was passing out.

His family were unsure how the table came to be pressing against him other than to believe it may have occurred while he was attempting to reach for his phone.

This should never be happening in this day and age, and this probably wouldn’t have happened if the Tories hadn’t had this crazed idea for austerity and cutting our services to the bone.

This is so sad, but the problem is there are far too many people on this small island of ours, along with the illegals and refugees who are all using the system that we pay into.

When was the last time a doctor, dentist, hospital, school, or council housing estate was opened or built near you? Yet we have thousands of people coming to this tiny island of ours, but Boris Johnson told the refugees they could have access to all benefits and they could stay with a British host for six months, but now it appears to be longer. So, where are all these people supposed to live? And why are we, the taxpayers footing the bill while trying to keep our own families afloat?

The BBC’s Blackout Scripts Have Been Revealed

The BBC has reportedly prepared a string of secret scripts to be read out on air in case of blackouts amid energy shortages this winter.

A newspaper outlet said the scripts would advise the public to use their car radios or battery-powered devices to tune into emergency BBC broadcasts via FM frequencies and would strive to keep the public notified in the event of a major loss of power.

One script seen by a reporter allegedly warns that a blackout could last for up to two days, with hospitals and police placed under extreme pressure, while another said the government has said it’s hoped power would be restored after 36 to 48 hours.

The scripts are said to have been produced as part of the BBC’s role in broadcasting vital health and safety communications to the public on behalf of the government in the event of national emergencies.

A newspaper outlet has contacted the BBC for comment.

It comes as National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew said the firm may need to introduce rolling power cuts across Britain in January and February, should the country fail to secure enough gas reserves from Europe.

Talking to the Financial Times’s Energy Transition Summit earlier this week, John Pettigrew warned that Britain’s gas-fired power stations, which generate a considerable amount of the nation’s power, are encountering a significant lack of fuel.

According to a newspaper outlet, the BBC’s draft plan indicates that in a national blackout it would operate a reduced temporary radio service from the UK’s emergency broadcasting centre (EBC) in an unknown rural area.

EBC service would deliver periodic news bulletins on Radio 4’s FM and long wave frequencies and a music service, with news updates on the FM spectrum used by Radio 2.

The broadcasts are designed to keep the public up-to-date on important safety information, deliver updates on the severity and duration of blackouts, and encourage citizens to abstain from putting undue pressure on emergency services unless absolutely necessary.

In the event of a blackout, mobile phone networks, internet access, cash points and traffic lights are among some of the services that would fail.

The risk of blackouts recalls the 1970s when strikes by miners and railway employees forced Ted Heath’s government to introduce planned power cuts to preserve energy.

Energy regulator Ofgem has said British households should lower their gas and electricity use where possible this winter to help cut costs and decrease the chance of power cuts.

Ah yes, we’re back to the Blitz spirit where everyone will be crowded around in the cold and dark listening to the transistor radio, only we’re not waiting for the bombs to start falling, we’re just waiting for a blackout. It appears that technology hasn’t gone forward, it’s gone back to the forties.

And yet the government has pushed electric cars onto us, enforced a prohibition on new petrol cars and slapped emission charges left right and centre, yet there are going to be blackouts. It seems the last laugh is on us, and what about those ridiculous windmills that were supposed to be the solution to all of our energy needs?

The route that things are on at the moment, well, I can see our society utterly crumpling in the winter months because there’s been colossal mismanagement of our economy and infrastructure and it’s been criminal. Our country is ruined.

So, there could be an energy supply crisis, but they must have backup reserves, don’t they? With the extra loading for the millions of EVs and heat pumps, they were expecting to roll into our homes and roads. They wouldn’t have been encouraging people to buy into the green policy agenda if it wasn’t viable, would they?

PROMISES APLENTY

Well, things aren’t going extremely well in the Government at the moment. Liz Truss is hanging on by her teeth and now there’s a petition going so that Boris Johnson can get back into 10 Downing Street again.

The Prime Minister ditched her close ally Kwasi Kwarteng to save her own bacon, and now Conservative MPs are scheming to replace her. Oh, she’s in deep shit as the plot thickens, but the timeline of shit has been coming down the line, and now it’s a bomb that’s been tossed up in the air. BOOM!

And if they believed getting rid of Kwasi Kwarteng was going to buy Liz Truss some time, they were so wrong.

Of course, the Conservative party was never a great party, to start with, but now it’s just a shamble, and Liz Truss has desecrated their reputation of economic competence.

She did a U-turn on the policy on which she became Prime Minister and she’s thrown her best ideological pal under the bus. She’s also declined to answer any questions and she’s done a runner. She’s just got to go along with the entire Conservative party and let someone else have a go – it’s time for a General Election.

Liz Truss will struggle to reach Christmas, although some believe she’s only got days to go, but of course, who will take her place? Sunak or Mordaunt, do behave, but at the moment they’re the most sellable option, and when I say sellable I literally mean sellable, although I’m not sure they would bring much at auction.

And then there’s Boris Johnson with numerous MPs still considering him as the best choice because no one has his charm, and perhaps people will realise that they did kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

On another note, Liz Truss isn’t even pretending to care, that’s because she probably doesn’t care, and there’s no way she’s going to bring the United Kingdom back from the brink, somebody capable would have to do that and that’s certainly not the Conservatives.

There’s nothing aspirational or upbeat about Liz Truss or the Conservative party, come to that, but has Liz Truss done enough to save herself? I very much doubt it, and if she’s got nothing good to say, then perhaps she shouldn’t say anything at all, and she’s now seen as economically inept and to be frank a tad useless.

She sort of reminds me of one of those puppets you get at a pantomime, you know, the ones with the hand up their arse.

It does seem ridiculous to change the leader again, but honestly, Liz Truss is politically finished through her incompetent madness.

Of course, being Prime Minister is an extremely challenging job because it calls for strong, principled and savvy political leadership, which she is not.

I would like to find the correct words to describe Liz Truss but I just can’t because there are just no words for her, but then most of the Tories are the same, they appear to live in this continuous bubble of Alice in Wonderland, along with the Mad Hatter and his tea party.

Sadly though Britain is about to get a new Prime Minister, yep again! In the end, they will have had more Prime Ministers than I’ve had hot dinners, and whoever does take over from Liz Truss will have a thankless task on their hands, and whatever your political view, it’s clear that the next Prime Minister will be handed a hot mess.

It’s Only Been A Few Weeks Since We Had A Heatwave!

Christmas has come early for some, as workers reportedly started putting up Oxford Street’s famous festive lights on Monday, with ‘scrooges’ saying it’s too soon.

Shoppers were surprised to see the first light being hung 90 days before Christmas, with one pointing out ‘it’s not even October yet!’ With the UK’s heatwave ending just a few weeks ago and energy prices soaring, some felt the installation to be premature.

However, the 5,000 star-shaped lights won’t be switched on until November 2, the company running the favoured attraction has revealed. After that, the stars will illuminate the famous high street every night throughout the Christmas period.

And in a bid to manage their energy consumption amid soaring bills and the UK’s cost of living crisis, they will be on for a shorter period of time than expected each day.

The stars will also be eco-friendlier than usual in another sense, as they are comprised of 300,000 LED lightbulbs which are 75 per cent more efficient than standard bulbs.

According to Secret London, overall, their energy consumption will be cut by two-thirds in comparison to last year.

They’re also made from recycled polymer, meaning they’re 100 per cent recyclable.

Hadas Kulcsar, Campaigns and Events Manager at New West End Company which put on the light display, said they were pleased to be bringing back the Christmas lights to the world-famous Oxford Street this year, with a unique twist to treat those who’ve really made a difference in 2022.

She said that for many, this is the first Christmas without restrictions post-COVID and they want to take the opportunity to help people get back to celebrating the spirit of Christmas together. However, in the present circumstances, it’s also vital that they lower their energy consumption and help to foster a more sustainable Christmas in line with their ambitions to make Oxford Street a leading sustainable district.

She said the decreased hours of the Christmas lights were a great step forward to accomplishing this.

Preparations are underway for the winter season already despite most of England and Wales still being declared to be in drought and several water companies’ hosepipe bans from the summer continuing.

A video posted on TikTok of workers putting up the lights, which was captioned ‘not them putting the lights up in Oxford Street when it’s not even October yet’ has racked up 85,000 views.

In other news, clocks continue to go forward, time does indeed march on, seasons really do change and life is extremely brief. Although it is excessively early. But after having lockdown after lockdown, let’s celebrate instead of whining about it, and even if we can’t afford Christmas at least we can go and see the illuminations.

People have been poor before but we still managed to have candle lights, it was called rationing, and it was tough in the past, but the good news is, when you’re on the floor with your candles, the only way is up, but I don’t suppose many people are in the festive spirit at the moment.

To be fair over the years I’ve become a bit of a Grinch, but not this year, this year is going to be different because everything has been so tragic with all the lockdowns and people being sick and dying. So, this year I’m going to act like a ten-year-old, and I’m truly going to put the greatest effort into feeling some cheer and goodwill towards others, although by January I’ll likely be dragging myself up Everest by my teeth. Once more into the breach my dear friends.

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