The sky is falling, the sky is falling

[Suff]

It's a heatwave. Has been for all of 3 days. People are dying, mass epidemic, rush around, take care, the end is nigh.

When I see this in the press, I must admit I just cringe. It gets worse every year. As a result of the thumping headlines, everyone is now aware that we are living through "The worst". Or at least that's what they tell us.

Now don't get me wrong, I lost a neighbour in 2003 in Scotland because he delayed going to hospital and had a breathing incident which killed him. I am WELL aware of the consequences of hot weather. But, for pity's sake. It's hardly the end of the world. Temperatures at 30-31c. Likely to go on for another week. Well I was working in London in 2003 and they had to resurface the M/A4 because the new tar they layed melted. I rode my bike past a building frontage reading 43.5c on it's digital temperature readout. It was in the sun. That was torture. This is just a nice end to the miserable weather we have had.

What happened in France in 2003. That's a tragedy. 14,800 additional people died as a result of the scorching hot weather.

But that's not it all either.

I can find loads of stats going back to 1980 or so. Many more from 2,000 onwards, but do you think I can get any numbers for 1976? Oh I see 3.x% increase for each degC of temperature rise. But nothing and I do mean NOTHING in terms of numbers of people who were either at risk or died as a result of that 15 day onslaught of heat.

Our values have changed. We're fatter, less able to get rid of the heat, our circulation is worse and our blood is thicker. Making it all much, much, worse than it might have been in 76. So I can understand some of the obsession. But Obsession it is. We had other things to worry about in 76, like 26% inflation and a government out of control.

And for all these articles about the <extreme> heat, do I see One which offers sensible advice? Take a shower and drip dry, go to the local pool, drink plenty of water. Not just fluids, Alcohol is the worst thing for this temperature and fizzy drinks are not much better. No, no we hear about NHS action plans and emergency response units. We hear of water authorities who are suggesting we use less water because they didn't keep enough back from the incredible amount that fell in the first half of the year, or they didn't invest in the infrastructure.....

To be honest if it didn't annoy me so much, I'd be speechless with amazement....

[cromwell]

It's a heatwave. Has been for all of 3 days. People are dying, mass epidemic, rush around, take care, the end is nigh.

When I see this in the press, I must admit I just cringe. It gets worse every year.

It does. The basic problem is that the State thinks that the ordinary person is a complete idiot.
Without the infallible hand of the State to steady and guide us, we are sure to fall over and bump our heads...

We now have yet another road sign inbetween our village and the next - it advises us to "Wear our seat belts". God almighty! I was driving on the motorway last year and one of the illuminated signs said - "Don't drink and drive"! As though you are going to pull off a motorway, have a swift six pints and then get back on the motorway again!

I think it was Kaz who first pointed out the similarity of this public sloganeering to that of the old Soviet Union.

[Workingman]

All of this in a country whose population will, in its millions, use any excuse to flock overseas to take advantage of these sorts of temperatures. They do it year in and year out. They pack gallons of sun factor 60, which they slap on with gay abandon, before baking themselves from dawn till dusk while drinking tanker loads of Pina Colada.

I do understand that people need a little bit of information, but the over-the-topness of it all depresses me.

This is typical of the bo!!ocks we get from the BBC!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23341698

[Kaz]

Yes it probably was me Cromwell, it bugs me a LOT

The worst thing is that younger people just don't 'see' it, they take this nannying as the norm

Suff I remember that summer very well, I was 17 and had just left school - I remember travelling up to Westminster for my Civil Service interview and it being scorching! I remember tarmac melting, and pictures in the newspapers of eggs frying on pavements, but I don't remember health warnings or panic........ It was wonderful and seemed to go on for ever..........

[Aggers]

Suff - a lot of what you say makes a lot of sense.

There is a lot more obesity about nowadays - it was almost unseen in my youth
except those clowns at the circus or comics at the cinema, like Fatty Arbuckle.

My wife went into town this afternoon, and saw two people who had collapsed,
presumably due to the heat, one with a serious nosebleed.

[Suff]

Kaz that is the point. In 76 it was wonderful. Today it is a problem. The way life has changed.

WM,these people go to foreign holidays to their air conditioning. They drink like idiots and dehydrate themselves without consequences. Then they come home and do it here in the summer.

Time for some basic common sense and a little less histrionics.

[Fugitive]

Unbelievable fuss! In 1976 we had three businesses - a hairdressing salon, a restaurant and a side-line supplying fresh ready meals to other pubs and restaurants in the area. I worked all day in the salon and in the evenings did my waitress stint in the restaurant.

Woke up one morning living in the flat above the salon and we had no water supply. We unknowingly had a dripping overflow, our next door neighbours (another business) had reported it and while we were working in the restaurant the previous evening the then Water Board turned off our water supply to the salon and our flat!!!!!! In all that heat! No water!!!! Lost a whole day's business. No water to drink, to bath and I had a very young child. Imagine that happening now? I can't! We were incandescent with fury.

Couldn't begin to tell you my language to the Water Board and to the neighbours-we never, ever, ever spoke to them again!

FugiInANeedingAChillPillAtTheMemoryKindaWay

[Workingman]

Time for some basic common sense and a little less histrionics.

Unbelievable fuss!

Absolutely!

The BBC, in one of its ten articles on the subject, is reporting that up to 100 may have died because of the heatwave - may have - but that some of the deaths may have been "among people who would have died just a few weeks later if there had been no heatwave".

Eh?

It also reports that plastic surgery has seen a 100% rise in trauma cases. That's terrible, a 100% rise! But wait, its up from 27 to 53, and a lot of those are DIYers cutting off fingers and thumbs with circular saws and hedge trimmers. One was a foot injury to a child who fell from it's parents lap - the parent was driving a lawnmower at the time!

Now I understand that these are serious injuries, but to blame peoples' stupidity on a few sunny days is stretching credibility a bit far.

[Suff]

If it were not for the fact that I have been dumbed down to such a level of low expectation in the UK press, my flabber would be well and truly gasted.

As it is, I just expect little else nowadays. Oh it annoys me, but it's like a puppy that persistently wets the floor. Whilst irritating, what else can you expect.

Well even a puppy can learn. Apparently the British media can only Un Learn.