This month the Energy Secretary approved his third large solar farm in a fortnight, one of them on prime farmland across Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire that his own inspectors told him to refuse. They walked the site. They said no. He signed it anyway.
So here's the grand plan. Take some of the best food-growing soil in England, ground that has fed people for a thousand years, and bury it under glass panels shipped in from China to catch the famous Lincolnshire sunshine. In a country where the sun knocks off mid-afternoon for half the winter and turns up for roughly eleven per cent of the year, we are concreting over arable land to harvest photons that mostly aren't there.
A British solar field spends most of its life doing an impression of a very expensive greenhouse with the plants missing. The panels tilt hopefully at a grey sky. The soil beneath them, some of the finest in the country, sits in the dark for forty years quietly learning to be a car park.
And it doesn't come back. Not in your lifetime. They are making a permanent decision about a temporary energy fashion, on ground you cannot un-glass, against the written advice of the men they pay to give it, in the same fortnight the same government swears food security keeps it awake at night.
Sunniest idea they've had all year.
Little Espresso was indeed poisoned. We also now believe she broke a rid when a local tried to save her with CPR.
11 days later we finally have a little smile and some tail wagging. It's the first day I see some big hope for her. So so tough on her
À ceux qui refusent de louer un logement à cause de la présence d’un chien… j’aimerais simplement dire ceci :
Je ne peux pas l’emmener à la plage, parce que ça vous dérange en vacances.
Je ne trouve pas de maison à louer, parce que “on ne veut pas d’animaux ici”.
Je ne peux pas prendre le bus ni le train, parce que “les chiens, ça embête les gens”.
Et pourtant…
C’est à lui que je pourrais demander de traverser des décombres après un tremblement de terre pour vous retrouver.
C’est lui qu’on envoie en montagne ou dans les bois quand quelqu’un est perdu sans réseau.
C’est encore lui qui plongera dans une eau glacée pour venir vous sauver, là où personne n’ose aller.
Oui, pour certains, ce n’est “qu’un chien”.
Mais si un jour vous avez besoin d’aide… ce sera peut-être ce chien-là qui viendra à votre secours.
Et il le fera.
Sans jamais vous demander si vous l’auriez laissé monter sur le canapé. 🐾
This is awful. The last ever Denby Pottery going to the kiln. Why is there not uproar? Where’s the government in this?? We all have Denby in our homes, in family heirlooms, as our history and now it’s closing through lack of support, such a sad sad day. #SaveDenby@denbypottery
My mom looked me in the eyes and said:
“If you disappeared tomorrow, no one would even notice.”
Everyone laughed.
I raised my hot dog and said:
“Challenge accepted.”
That night, I packed two suitcases, left my key on the counter, and moved three hours away.
No note.
No goodbye.
For 29 years, I had organized every holiday, baked every birthday cake, scheduled every appointment, and solved everyone’s problems.
For free.
The first week, no one called.
Exactly like my mom predicted.
By week two, my brother had called 47 times because he couldn’t work the washing machine.
My sister couldn’t renew her car registration.
My dad missed his medication refills and ended up in urgent care.
By month three, my mom hired a professional organizer for $200 a week to do what I’d done for free my entire adult life.
She quit after two weeks.
Meanwhile, I was living by a lake, taking pottery classes, and sleeping in for the first time in years.
Then my mom finally called, sobbing.
“We fell apart without you.”
I listened quietly.
Then said:
“Challenge completed, Mom.”
And hung up.
Turns out people do notice when you disappear.
They just never noticed when you were there doing everything.
After posting a photo of me, I ended up getting some pretty horrible comments about my appearance, and I’ve been too scared to post a photo on here since…
But I’ve decided I’m not gonna let nasty people dictate what I post - so here I am, unashamed of what I look like 😊
The BBC have suspended Gary Lineker until he apologies and agrees not to post anything critical about the Government on Social Media.
If you stand with Gary Lineker against the Government and the BBC. RT and Like this post to show your support for him.