Weather forecasts. Hosepipe bans. Bonuses. MPs’ second ‘jobs’. Other interesting figures. Travellers on the underground.

 One of my nodding acquaintances commented this morning that we need to get ready for some more warm weather. It seems that hot weather is forecast for later this week and into the weekend. We appear to have had enough rain around here to tide us over for a while. We both said we like the idea of it raining at night and then giving us reasonable weather during the day. That’s a bit hard on those who have to work late at night, but then, life is not always fair! 

Not far up the road, Yorkshire Water has announced a hosepipe ban. This has been the driest spring for 130+ years. Yorkshire received only 15cm of rainfall between February and June, less than half of what is expected in an average year, pushing the region to an official drought status. The reservoirs are 55.8% full, which is 26.1 percentage points lower than where they would normally be at this time of year. Here’s a picture of Baitings Reservoir, near Ripponden. 

From Friday nobody can use a hosepipe to water the, wash the car, clean the windows and such like. I  was surprised to discover that it’s still permissible to use a bucket of water filled from the kitchen tap to do those things. Does that method use less water than flows through he hosepipe? And some of the water will come from rivers, disrupting natural river dweller’s life! 

The boss of Yorkshire Water, Nicola Shaw, said she had decided to turn down her bonus this year, before the legislation was introduced. How very considerate of her. She was given, and accepted, a £371,000 bonus last year, but said it would “not be appropriate” to accept the payment this year, acknowledging that the supplier needed to “do better” on tackling pollution. Considering that the average annual bill for Yorkshire Water is £430, according to Ofwat, and is expected to rise by 35% by 2030, her bonus could pay the bill for close on 1000 households. I wonder what these executives do to earn those bonuses. 

I saw some figures about how much some MPs earn from their second, or in some cases multiple extra, “jobs” outside Parliament. I didn’t not the figures down but Nigel Farage and Rishi Sunak appeared in the top three if I remember correctly. Again, I wonder what they do to earn that money. 

Here are some more interesting numbers:

Jeremy Corbyn - an MP for 42 years - has been on the BBC Question Time programme 5 times.

Nigel Farage - an MP for less than a year - has been on 38 times.

Zarah Sultana - an MP for 6 years - has never been on.

So much for fair and impartial.

I have long held the opinion that the BBC contributed to the rise and rise of Farage. They do like to have a controversial figure on their programme.  Zarah Sultans, however, is clearly the wrong kind of controversial! 

Here’s a cartoon remembering yesterday’s 20th anniversary of the London and commenting on the resilience of the British people.

I must say that whenever I have been on the London underground Inhave never seen such a bunch of smiling, sociable people.

Hey ho!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!