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Wednesday 7th 34-50F[?] rather cloudy. With very little of the promised sunshine so far. A walk to the lanes into a cold westerly wind. Traffic intermittent but busy at times. The neighbours' "outdoor" dog has finally become bored with barking at me as I pass. The day was marked by frequent short hail or rain showers.
In Danish news: Greenlanders have voted against the ruling party in the election. Which probably means an end to a massive, planned, mining project.
The superpowers had been queuing to economically invade Greenland in exchange for pocket money bribes. Greenland has "vital" rare earths in abundance and "economically vital" northerly sea routes opening up. Properly managed, it could turn Greenland from abject poverty and chronic alcoholism into another Norway. Emphasis on "properly managed."
There is OFFICIALLY a 5:1 difference in local incomes across Denmark. With the richest ghetto the large area north of Copenhagen. The poorest, an immigrant ghetto on the outskirts of Odense. Though there are plenty more poverty stricken areas spread over much of Denmark.
A Danish taxpayer funded, "energy improvement" fund is expected to be completely depleted within THREE DAYS. It took only four days to be used up last time. This from a country still promising to cut their CO2 pollution by when? This from a country still trying to lead the world on empty climate promises? A million EVs by when?
Just think of this "energy pool" as yet another tax handout for the upper-middle classes. Only they, can afford the professional energy surveys. Only they have the ready funds arranged with their friendly bank manager. For the balance of their luxury "green" improvements. To be called upon as soon as the taxpayer handout website opens for [tax handout] business.
Only they can borrow against the absolutely guaranteed, tax-free hyper-inflation of property values. Already beating all previous records this year. This in a climate of almost zero interest rates. Our 7.5% mortgage x 30 years is fixed by the lender's demand for a massive charge for conversion to a lower rate.
Fit triple "energy" glazing to save on CO2? We have plastic tarpaulins over our rotting, single-glazed windows. It drums in the gales but helps to reduce the draughts. The 39% tax on my miserable, little fraction of a state pension is going straight to the wealthy.
So they can build their wine cellars, their sprawling conservatories, their indoor saunas and their indoor swimming pools. Meanwhile, our living area sank to only 7C, 44F this spring despite the wood stove. Some of our external walls were several degrees below freezing! The cost of insulation well beyond £10k equivalent.
Install £10k+ heat pumps? Several of our neighbours have been burning stinking, industrial pallets and demolition waste for years. They still use pre-war, water heating stoves 24x365 and have done so for decades. Year round, choking smoke from every direction regardless of wind direction. I suppose it makes a change from stinking pig shit from every direction!
Our hovel is actually reducing in official value as local taxes increase endlessly. Local homes never sell on the open market. Years pass as the 'For Sale' boards bleach to total illegibility.
Those which change hands do so only at forced auction. To expand absentee landlords', "paper" property investment portfolios. Leading to unkempt, uninhabitable properties. Massively overgrown hedges. Light blocking trees and weed infested, wilderness gardens. To be enjoyed by those who must still remain. Locked into the same-old, same-old, broken economic system. They call this mess "democratic socialism?" Seriously?
The news is that the race to access the "energy saving" fund was begun several days before the website was open. One chap was quoted as being something like number 40,000 in the queue. He accessed the website the moment it opened officially. He expects it to be 40 hours before he comes to the front of the online queue, By which time the "lottery prize" fund will be long gone.
They are having similar, queuing problems with the [Jinping Plague] vaccine booking website. I logged on soon after getting the messages that I could book a time and place. After a short wait I was told I was only one minute from the front of the queue. Then, just as the little man reached the end of the moving bar it suddenly became 39 minutes to the front of the queue!
I tried again later. There was still a very long wait. Does not compute.
And again, later still. I actually made it onto the website after a 7 minutes wait. I was next! Whoopee! Only for it to repeatedly crash for 20 minutes! It told me I would not lose my place in the queue if I left. So I went for my shower. They were lying. I returned and there are 32,000 in front of me now and the queue is paused. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be?
Later again: Now 21,000 in front of me and an hour's wait according to the website.
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