LEO McKINSTRY OK, we get it. It’s quite warm outside. Now please shut up with all your warnings and let us enjoy it
By Paul Homewood
THE great American journalist Henry Mencken once defined puritanism as “the haunting fear that somewhere, someone might be happy”.
His words are a perfect description of the nanny state zealots of modern Britain who can’t see a ray of sunshine without reaching for the panic button and the health emergency manual.
For most people, blue skies and rising temperatures are something to be welcomed, given our damp climate.
But for officialdom, they are an opportunity for more finger-wagging and scaremongering.
The good weather is a cue for an orgy of bureaucratic activity, as action plans are implemented, public warnings issued, high-level meetings held and dangers codified.
The risk assessment has replaced traditional common sense, just as the public health lecture had undermined the ability to have fun.
Instead of basking in the sun, we are encouraged to wallow in anxiety.
Guidance from the UK Health Security Agency, the quango that replaced Public Health England, urges us to “avoid being out in the sun during the hottest part of the day”.
If you must make the hazardous journey outdoors, “take everything you will need with you, such as a bottle of water, sun cream and a hat”.
Bet you hadn’t thought of any of that.
In more no s**t Sherlock advice it warns you should “walk in the shade and wear lightweight, loose-fitting, light-coloured cotton clothes”, while your hat should be “wide-brimmed, to reduce exposure to the face, eyes, head and neck”.
We are further instructed “to avoid extreme physical exertion”, so that’s a no to any imitations of Love Island on the beach or in the bedroom.
Alcohol, tea and coffee are also to be avoided in this crisis.
“We’re all doomed” was the cry of Private James Frazer in Dad’s Army and the same bleak spirit infuses official advice.
“Even during a relatively cool summer, one in five homes is likely to overheat,” says the Agency.
Some of the instructions are so absurd that they seem to have been designed for congenital idiots.
“Turn off central heating,” says one sentence.
“Take a break from the heat by moving to a cooler room,” says another.
Well blow me down with an industrial fan.
It is amazing that we ever won a World War or built the largest empire the planet has ever seen, much of its territory in far hotter climes than anything currently being experienced in Britain.
The bureaucrats are determined to treat us like children, where anything enjoyable is treated as a threat.
So, when it comes to swimming, the Agency declares, “Always wear a buoyancy aid or life jacket for activities on the water” and, “Only enter the water in areas with adequate supervision and rescue cover”
An atmosphere of terror is being wilfully created.
Bureaucratic hysteria
News outlets sternly report that Cobra meetings have been called in Whitehall to discuss whether a National Heatwave Emergency should be declared.
Speed restrictions have been imposed on parts of the rail network and some local authorities warn that bins will not be emptied in the heat.
In my own county of Kent, the director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said it is “vital people think carefully about what they need to do to protect themselves, their family and particularly vulnerable people from the heat”.
The mood of bureaucratic hysteria is partly a legacy of Covid, when the state became used to controlling our lives in the name of public safety.
Having been given enormous powers and funding during the pandemic, the agencies are keen to flex their muscles once more.
There is also the usual mission creep that occurs in all over-powerful bureaucracies.
The UK Health Security Agency was set up to deal with deadly threats, not dish out suncream and fashion advice.
But having created the sprawling apparatus of intervention, the bureaucrats relish any chance to put them into action.
That helps them justify their expensive existences.
There are also political factors at work.
The trade unions want to foment an atmosphere of grievance in the workplace, based on the image of exhausted, dehydrated staff forced to toil in the stifling heat by oppressive managers.
Memorable summer
That way they can crank up the pressure for more home working and days off, with the ever-present threat of strikes in the background
Similarly, the fashionable modern culture of rights, reinforced by armies of human resources officers obsessed with work-life balance, promotes the belief that staff should be constantly indulged.
A colleague told me of a worker who refused to come into the office because it was “too hot”, even though it was air-conditioned.
Then there is the Green Party, which also sees the heatwave as a vehicle to push its agenda
There is no sense of proportion about all this alarmism.
Britain has had heatwaves before and they were not classified as dire emergencies.
The Great Fire of London in the 17th century was partly the result of an unusually hot summer.
There was also a real scorcher in 1911, when the sun blazed for two months and the temperature even reached 36.7C in early August.
That was not a portent of things to come, for the following summer was unusually wet.
The records of 1911 were beaten by the memorable summer of 1976, when the temperature exceeded 32C for 15 consecutive days.
But most us who experienced that golden period look back on it with fondness.
Luckily there was no official “Heatwave Plan” or UK Health Security Agency to ruin it.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19193074/heatwave-britain-weather-warning/
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“In my own county of Kent, the director of public health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said it is “vital people think carefully about what they need to do to protect themselves, their family and particularly vulnerable people from the heat”.
Dr Anjan Ghosh. Would that be an Inuit name? Enquiring minds need to know.
And will Mr. Gosh be issuing warnings this winter to avoid the extreme cold when we have energy rationing and blackouts?
It won’t take temperatures falling much below 10ºC before the very elderly and frail pensioners begin keeling over and dying of hypothermia because they can’t afford to pay their gas and electricity bills.
Come to think of it, they probably won’t bother much about blackouts as they can’t afford the damn energy anyway.
And will any politicians be held responsible for their utter energy policy incompetence? Of course not, we’ll pay the price.
The time is long overdue for politicians and their quango’s to begin paying a price for their recklessness.
I remember ‘76 very well. We all largely enjoyed it except for the gardeners – there was a hosepipe ban!
Do I detect that is about to be a ban on wild swimming?
I wear a Panama hat which I have lined with cooking foil – not to protect against G5 like some stupid people – to reflect some radiant heat back out. It sort of works!
I suspect that had Panamanians found tinfoil in their hats to be more effective than just the hat itself, they would be selling them.
I line my hat with tin foil too and the voices have almost stopped now …
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate Deceive and Destroy Reputations ..https://undergroundnewswire.news/2022/02/25/how-covert-agents-inflitrate-the-internet- to-manipulate-deceive-and-destroy-reputations-2/
Good thing those sleazebags are not crawling on Pauls page otherwise the tinfoil cladding would not thickening and adjusting wouldn’t it ?
Daft. The Panama hat is designed for free flow of air so your head cools naturally
The Climate liars are already saying that the UK record temperature is going to be broken in the next few days .
They probably have a heat gun already set up near a temp gauge somewhere so that they can claim a new record , because if they use the one on the runway at Heathrow again , then people might start to get a bit doubtful about their claims .
Yes, our daytime max may get within 10°C of the temperature in Baghdad. Shocking!
Pull the curtains and hide 🙄
Exactly my thoughts. IF (well actually when because they have already decided it will be regardless) the temperature record is broken, I guarantee 100% it will not be an automatic station. It will bbe at one that they can fiddle.
A few years ago Adelaide broke the 1939 record for summer temperatures. We were told it was coming and sure enough it came – on ONE thermometer for a short time. I was looking at the figures released every 10 minutes and NONE of these included the record. It was said to have occurred between 2 of them, just a jump of 1.6℃ up then down again inside 10 minutes.
Surprisingly neither the nearest figures from the SW coast, the nearest northern station (normally hotter than the official City figures) nor those from the airport less than 3 miles away showed any such aberration. Still the gullible swallowed the bait.
And in the town (outside Adelaide) the forecasts figures and the official figures next day are frequently differing by 4℃. Even yesterday the forecast was for 5 to 13℃ and on the TV last night this became 5 to 9℃. My thermometer said 3.4℃ to 12℃.
So…shall we start a book on the odds of the Met Office managing to find somewhere – anywhere – no matter how unsuitable for taking public records – Cambridge botanic gardens greenhouse? – to get a new record high?
Heathrow is a favourite.
Gravesend is another one. I mean it’s only an oasis in the middle of some of the most extensive motorway networks in the country.
No it will not be Gravesend (it was actually Broadness) not just because they have modified the coolers on the co-located radar station but more because they have scrapped the station! It ain’t there anymore
Even now, they are standing behind a 747-400 at Heathrow with their thermometers, hoping there is a record. Remember, they WANT a record, to which they will go, “Oh, my!”
(Don’t let ’em kid you, they like going, “Oh, my!”)
Meanwhile, those who want to get away from the risk of dying from the heat – or the constant nagging tghat they will – are flying off to Spain, Turkey, Cyprus and N Africa!
The headlines used to say ‘Phew, what a scorcher!” Now it’s ‘We’re all going to die!”
” The records of 1911 were beaten by the memorable summer of 1976, when the temperature exceeded 32C for 15 consecutive days. ”
The summer of 1945 would have been an exceptional time to be have been alive in the UK, perhaps best remembered by the Victory Tests https://wisden.com/stories/how-the-1945-victory-tests-rekindled-crickets-competitive-spark
And I was working at my first job as a surveyor’s “chain boy” on the new M11 motorway in Essex. My daily bottle of ice block frozen orange squash, wrapped in yesterdays newspapers & my towel, was warm to drink by mid-morning. The concrete road for some sections had to be lofted and relaid months later because it dried to quickly and cracked.
An interesting variation comes from the definition of “summer”. Normally this is taken as a three month period of June, July, August…but what if the hot period is July August and September? (1957) The data for September doesn’t count towards the “summer” records!
According to Chris Fawkes, a BBC weather presenter, we’ve had extreme heat events in the UK before and thousands of people died. I can’t recall those events myself but surely the loss of thousands of people due to extreme heat in the UK will be clearly recalled by many. I was on a motorcycle holiday to the IOM TT in the heatwave of 1976 so I must be lucky to be alive.
As with so many claims, the deaths are almost entirely statistical. If you really want to you can find 2,000 more deaths when it is hot than when it is winter. Many, if not most, are simply brought forward a week or two but still it’s carnage apparently.
There must be meteoroligical reasons for every heatwave, but it is difficult to find amid all the climate change guff. There are hints to do with warmth in Northern Canada impacting the jetstream, blocking cold Atlantic air, but my guess is that any sensible explanation now would be a career ending event for the people involved. I found this for 1976, a lot of sunshine may have had something to do with it, and the position of the High probably prevented even hotter air arriving from the South.
“The heat-wave of 23 June to 8 July 1976 was associated with a stable high-pressure system
over England and Wales, both at the surface and at high levels. Minor day-to-day changes in
the velocity of the surface wind determined the location of the hottest areas. Temperature
returns from about 630 official and co-operating stations in the United Kingdom were
examined and they showed that, on a criterion of number of days with temperature equal to
or greater than 32°C (90°F), the 1976 heat-wave far exceeded all others. Although the
highest individual temperature of 35-9°C at Cheltenham on 3 July was lower than the most
probable United Kingdom record, individual records were broken at more than 30 stations
and temperatures having return-periods of more than 50 years were recorded over most of
southern England and also over parts of the Scottish Borders and the Highlands. More than
twice the average amount of sunshine was recorded over most of England and Wales.”
Have a look at the air pressure:
https://www.radar-live.com/p/atmospheric-pressure.html
The BBC TV News at 1pm today, had the Red Alert panic statement for two days next week, announced, not by the Meterological Office, but by a spokesman from the Grantham Institute of Climate Change, part of the London School of Economics.
It was followed by a short (thankfully) rather meek statement, from the extremist Justin Rowlatt, who at the end of it said “it’s 50-50 that we may get 40 degrees”. Maybe maybe not…. I wonder if the BBC have said “enough is enough or you go….”
The Grantham Institute has an interesting page on their website regarding litigation now prevelant in the world, where blame for the Climate is placed on the West, rather than natural events from which we should protect ourselves. Large amounts of money I imagine being claimed from the West, as we are all liable for this (non) disaster…..
If 40 degrees is actually seen, how much do we bet it will be the Botanical Gardens in Cambridge; the usual suspect in Faversham; or a heat trapped piece of concrete at Heathrow Airport. I wonder if they will also mention the lowest reading in the UK to give a balance…?
The Grantham Institute at the totally discredited Imperial College (Neil Pantsdown Ferguson and his shroud waving Covid chums) is run for Jeremy Grantham, Big Hedge Fund owner with interests both in oil but particularly in Carbon Tax racketeering.
The execrable Bob “fastfingers” Ward is the BBC’s go-to man there, with his PhD in Paleopiezometry (failed.) and his fast and mendacious put downs of sceptical viewpoints of even Nobel prize winning physicists. They also have some woman whose name I can’t remember and big financial support from Wild Bill Gates.
Not nice people.
You may be a newby : Jeremy Grantham who funds the centre is a green hedgefund magnate
50:50? My understanding was there was a 10% chance of 40 degrees.
Heck. Has The Sun just become the most intelligent newspaper in Britain? Shows how far the others have fallen.
I have always said that if The Sun starts to challenge the AGW narrative and BS it will be all over very quickly.
These warnings are simply part of the plan to frighten us into accepting CAGW and thus Net Zero.
And all these petty busybodies are given their generous salaries and gold plated pensions by taxpayers in the productive part of the economy. Makes me feel like I’m getting value for money. NOT 🤬
I think that the alarmist hysteria is needed in order to keep the climate change narrative alive. It can’t ever be admitted that we are just having a bit of warm weather just like the bit of warm weather that happens normally every few years or so. No, it has to be something totally new and unprecedented.
“Alcohol, tea and coffee are also to be avoided in this crisis.”
What the —-?
That, by itself, would be a crisis!
Brilliant piece Paul . . . authoritarianism is, I am afraid, to stay . . . bureaucrats need to feel that they have fulfilled their roles and spent our money with great aptitude . . . common sense amongst the public must be deemed absent . . .
McKinstry does not seem to give a link to the guidance. However, I found this: https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2022/07/14/staying-safe-in-extreme-heat/
Some of the phrasing in the HSA blog is similar to his quotes, e.g. “walk in the shade, apply sunscreen and wear a wide-brimmed hat, if you have to go out in the heat.”
There is though no mention of turning off the central heating. If anyone knows where this quote comes from, pray enlighten me.
@Jit Twitter search points me to this page
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/heatwave-plan-for-england/beat-the-heat-staying-safe-in-hot-weather
and the line it is still there for me screenshot
Thanks Stew. Looks like multiple versions of the same advice on different government sites. Yes, they really do recommend turning off the central heating.
I was stuck in a traffic jam all afternoon on the M6 caused by similar people who coned off miles of the outside lane in both directions with no sign of any work taking place! Suffering that I also had to suffer the grave voices of the “impartial” BBC getting hysterical as if it was an empirical certainty that temps would exceed 40 degrees. Words like when it happens were used. Total certainty was imparted to the public. How is it that 40 deg in Spain or Greece is nice and people flock there but 40 deg in the UK is a death sentence? also We were told deliberately vaguely by an “expert” that “as we all know” thousands of people die every year from heat related problems and this is getting worse due to climate change! Firstly he did not qualify this neither did the interviewer challenge him leaving the impressionable listener to think this was about the UK which had to be the intention. He also did not add how many die from extreme cold neither was he prompted to do so by the ever so “impartial” BBC interviewer. The BBC voice over artists were making snide remarks about Mkinstry et al daring to prick their baloon. When a forgettable name from the Met Office was interviewed to her credit she backed off a bit from the 40 deg. and commenting as prompted by the BBC specifically on Mkinstry’s views but again under prompting from the BBC voice over artist she launched into a diatribe about climate change and how to control it, things where were completely outside of her experience and remit. I am glad the BBC is so “impartial”. What would we do if they just simply reported the news? ::
What is the betting that there will be a BBC camera team on 24 hour temperature watch at Heathrow airport always guaranteed to supply a completely biased temperature which is what they so desperately need.
The BBC reports that a “National Emergency” has been declared. Too right but it should be about the cost of living crisis, not for the rich, and the energy price increases brought about by the politicians ridiculous policies.
A notable feature of the fairly high temperatures forecast for these two days is that relative humidity will be exceptionally low. It means that the 35C forecast here with rel. humidity of just 24% gives a wet bulb temperature of 21C.
About 2 weeks ago I was in Italy and it was very hot. The temperatures were anywhere between 34C and 37C. Not exceptional for the Med but the humidity varied between 57% and 83% which was unusual. We coped well but were glad of the air con at night.
What we are expecting for a couple of days holds no fears, nor should it despite the national emergency called by the MET. Let’s see how it pans out but I’d be surprised if it reaches 40C. They are probably relying on the same info as they put in to their climate models which are not working out too well.
As an aside, what has happened to the Met’s forecast of wetter summers?
For much of the last 20 years, I lived in SE Asia. In early May 2016,at the height of the El Nino (shortly before the election of Duterte) I was in the Philippines and experienced exceptionally hot conditions-heat index figures of 53C were reported on the news.
Similarly I was stuck in central Thailand a couple of years back during the April/May hot season with temperatures in the low 40s. The high humidity gave a wet bulb number around 32/33.
To answer your final question, isn’t it obvious they just fit the theory around whatever weather we are having at that time?
Oh for goodness sake.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-62182530
We had to wear full uniform and duck when the metal framed windows exploded – yes they really did.
I don’t know about next week, I do know that this week they told me I was in in a heatwave
and it felt to me that the days were not actually fully warm
but rather I could see limited heat events,
eg if the wind dropped and you were against a south facing wall
So I checked Met Office WeatherObservationsWebsite
Scampton #heatwave ? not his past week
See how much of the time it’s below 20C
except Monday night into Tuesday
(middle of graph hanging around 20C)
Wind speed mirrored temperature
so didn’t feel super hot
I live right on the south coast, in the last 2 weeks there’s been 3 warm days, 25C once, gap, then 26C two days running, rest have been average and cooler. Nothing out of the ordinary, not even a real heatwave.
Weather Dot com does hourly forecasts for 36 hours ahead
For Monday it’s giving me a high of 30C lasting from 3-6pm with a 17Kmh wind *
Yet the TV guys say 36C
* Weather Dot com has some discrepancy co on the 10 day forecast
It does say peak on Monday 36C, Tuesday 38c
Then 23 rest of the 6 days
I’ll embed the new History Debunked video
(If I just put a link, people tend to not click)
Oh he reckons it’ PR excuse super high energy prices
If these people had enough to do they would not have time to put out tese scare stories. The solution should be to reduce the stafdfd numbvers and otrher resources available in whatever agency, NGO, quango or government depaertment they work for.
If it is “warm” today it will be the first Saturday this season I’ve been able to umpire my cricket team without a thick woolly jumper on – its been unusually cold in Shropshire so far this year although being a little dry.
I would love to know if this is unusual?
If I hadn’t been told there was a heatwave I might have thought there wasn’t.
We all perceive things differently and I must admit that sitting I the garden yesterday evening I was wearing my berghaus fleece and my wife went inside complaining she was cold. Obviously she was suffering from Heatstroke.
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun… tra la la!
It is a continual source of amazement to me that the people of Spain, Greece, Africa, Arizona and Mexico aren’t all dead from heatstroke.
What do they know that we don’t?
Here in the UK at Heathrow, stood behind an A380 the temps are bound to hit mid 40s.
Note no wind over Europe next few days. Currently Boris’s Saudi Arabia of Wind is producing two per cent of demand as I write. And Germany is shutting down its nukes.
I’m sitting here with a old, water sodden copies of the Radio Times over my head, watching re-runs of Ski Sunday, but all I get on my bald patch is a reverse picture of Richard Dimbleby.
Can anyone explain which part of “Climate Change Theory” predicts pulses of already heated air (heated by the sun cos they get more of it in the Med) will be blown northwards to us.
In NZ we are having a code orange event. ( similar nomenclature) NW gales.
18C in midwinter.
also if you are permitted try this. on Skynews Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG660H1JjWU a German academic on media silence for climate protests.
Always surprised to see how official maximum temperature records fall with time. I recall the temperature hitting 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 C) 10 miles north-east of London on 29th June 1957 (loud cheering when the shade temperature reached 100 at 3pm). I am now told (by Wikipedia) the max temperature on that day was 35.6 C. That day’s temperature was caused by a unique weather event when high pressure over the near continent drew up hot air from the Iberian peninsula. They had never seen metrological charts like it.
Great stuff Peter . . .
I live in Vancouver. Last year WE had the ‘Heat Wave’ 6 weeks above 30 degrees. Hit 40 a couple of times . . . Air conditioners full blast ALL DAY ! . . . This year . . . late summer . . . one day above 30. This morning I had to turn on the Heat . . . 14 degrees outside . . . Brrr. The Acadians of eastern Canada have a saying . . . The more things change . . . the more they stay the same !!
OH . . . PS . . . last year all the environmentalists were preaching that this trend would continue thanks to Human Caused Climate Change . . . Hmm . . . Go figure . . .