The Thamesmead Grump

BARMPOT RULES SCOTLAND

It has been said that Britain has always punched above it's weight when it comes to the field of scientific discovery and invention.

Scotland, despite it's small size relative to the whole of the UK has been a major contributor to this, with a higher than average number of scientists and inventors. This has happened in no small part to the willingness of Scottish educational institutions to be more prepared to consider unconventional ideas that their more hide bound English counterparts.

The Scottish Parliament has also managed to break the mold of traditional British politics with a whole raft of original ideas for perennial problems.

It is with real sadness therefore that I have read that they have decided to ignore the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence and ban the growing of genetically modified crops based on nothing more than ignorance, pseudo-science and the lobbying of the organic food industry who want us all to pay premium prices for their products.

It's not surprising that this policy is being supported by the Scottish Green Party whose idiot SMP Alison Johnstone says "the cultivation of GM crops would harm the environment" without a shred of evidence to back up her claim.

Any anti GMO website you care to look at will tell basically the same scare stories, that there is increasing evidence to show they are harmful without showing what this evidence is.

We have Organic Industry shills like Vandana Shiva earning $40,000-$50,000 per speaking engagement, claiming that firms like Monsanto are trying to introduce a form of "food totalitarianism" while at the same time trying to make us eat nothing at all except their own over priced organic produce.

Most interestingly, many of these sites quote polls showing that most Americans are opposed to GMOs without mentioning the fact that a similar number are opposed to water.

I think most of Scotland's great scientists would now be turning in their graves.

DAFT, DAFTER, DAFTEST

This is the Thames Path which runs alongside the Crossness Pumping Station. You can see that it is overgrown with Buddleia.

The people responsible for the path's maintenance can save lots of money by not bothering to keep it in check.

This money will come in really useful later when they have to pay for the cost of repairing the path damaged by e.g. Buddleia roots.

I don't know who is responsible for the Thames Path, or at least, this bit of it, their website doesn't say.

I also don't know what it is about institutions like this and their determination to wait until a small problem turns into a big problem but it seems to be a common factor among many of them.

LOCAL WILDLIFE

It's not all doom and gloom along the Thames Path. Here is some of the wildlife I have seen in the last few days.