That Government clings desperately on to whatever little credibility it retains by dangling the prospect of 'getting Brexit done'. It is astonishing how we all tend to get sucked into the farce. Even if this famous deal is cobbled together, by means of a classic piece of the Sulk's favourite food - cake kept and eaten - a border down the Irish Sea such as the Maybot claimed 'no British prime minister could accept', it is obvious that the Brexit saga will in fact only be beginning. So far we have only been in the preface, exactly as happens to be the case with the climate crisis.
Insofar as the Sulk has a policy in both cases, his priority appears to be to find any way at all of enabling his electorate to get their heads back in the sand. How on Earth can any serious progress be made by any one country on its own? How can we plausibly make progress unless it be in cooperation with our neighbours? The challenges of building international and environmental responsibility, of enabling the requisite global responses to our global problems, are all essentially one and the same, and the European project is but a step on the way to such a global ambition.
Logically, the Brexiteers would rather leave the planet; the Sulk may well tout his British space project! Here is another instance of the Brexit delusion, that it could be better than playing a full part in the European one! Is it so very hard to see that the individual nations thrive by playing in the game? At the same time, an effective global response is one that would empower individuals and local communities. But what's logic got to do with it anyway, you say? Very well, wait till you see! Meanwhile, I shall mainly hold my silence on our peaceful little island, though beavering away in my own little way on the practical level.
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| Doggie Heaven |
It's taken years, but our little extension is nearing completion at last, and with no loan attached to it - just buying a few materials here and there as we go along, and with the support of friends. When that's done, I intend to concentrate on the sea-faring end of things, and getting the Anna M going again in a carbon-neutral mode. I will head for Portugal again next week, saying byebye to some lovely autumn weather here on Sherkin, but I hope to return two weeks later with a little hydrogen generator to test out.
Kevin Davis, a lecturer at the Cork Institute of Technology, has pointed me in the direction of an excellent resource for accessing research papers - www.sciencedirect.com - with regard to using a diesel/hydrogen mixture in an internal combustion engine. One can find there, for example, 'A review on the technical adaptations for internal combustion engines to operate with gas/hydrogen mixtures', 'Hydrogen combustion in a compression ignition diesel engine', and 'A review on the technical adaptations for internal combustion engines to operate with gas/hydrogen mixtures.' This research is encouraging, but there remains a chasm between such work and actually rolling out practical applications.
Given all the hype about the 'Extinction Rebellion' and so on, one might have expected that it would be easy to garner support for any such effort. Such is not my experience. Even more than our politics, our financial structures are out of kilter with the real challenges, so much so that according to Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, existing global investment carries the implication of global warming 'probably north of 4C'.* Something is going to have to give!
If anyone out there is interested in participating in a little effort to power a boat without contributing to this catastrophe, and helping in some little way to build an alternative future instead, please get in touch - email gannetsway(at)gmail.com
*see https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/15/bank-of-england-boss-warns-global-finance-it-is-funding-climate-crisis
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I welcome feedback.... Joe