When was the last time you moved house? Are you a renter, or perhaps a first-time buyer? Maybe you are downsizing and thinking of moving? If you are, you may be in for a shock. A friend of mine is attempting to downsize. He doesn’t require a mortgage and is a cash buyer—and feels blessed to be in that position. Similarly another viewer has written to say that the home they rent is to be sold by the landlord, so they have to move too. Moving home is a massive upheaval for everyone: for some, it is a new adventure, a new beginning and an exciting time, whilst for others it is a period of dread, packing boxes and red tape.
So how difficult is it to move in 2024, and what hurdles are you expected to jump?
Gone are the days of scanning the local newspaper property pages or popping into your estate agent to pick up details of any properties you may be interested in. Do you remember the old days when couples and young families could be seen peering into the window, scanning the details on display? While some estate agents can still be found on your High Street, many are now online agents, who require voluminous amounts of your data just to have your request for a viewing considered.
Viewing any British property in 2024 requires a number of hoops to be jumped through first. But what if you are unwilling to jump through hoops, and what of those who are not online, or who don’t wish to give away their data to agents who may not even be in their country? A friend recently tried to view a property which was on the market with Purple Bricks, only to find the agent was based in a call centre in South Africa! After refusing to give his data, he was told quite curtly that he would not be offered a viewing; the phone was put down. Simple: no data, no viewing, no sale.
What specifications matter to you when you are looking for somewhere to live? Due to my repeated flooding nightmares, a location at the top of a hill would be my priority. But in 2024, have priorities changed? I think they have. My friend has discovered that a smart meter is a deal breaker. Smart meters are replacing traditional gas and electricity meters as part of a national infrastructure upgrade. According to the Government, this will allow us to use more renewable energy and increase our energy security. You can expect to receive a ‘hub’, a handheld device, with an ‘in-home display’ that will be situated in your property to show you how much energy you are using. Sounds innocent, but are you willing to allow your hub to connect to the ‘secure national smart meter network’? Who will be monitoring you, listening to you or invading your privacy? Do you know your rights?
Energy suppliers are now obliged to replace analogue meters with smart meters at pace. There is no legal obligation as yet to have a smart meter; however, many homes have already been coerced by their energy company to swap their analogue meter for an all-singing, all-dancing ‘smart meter’, which will read your meter, alert you to your usage and spy on you. Smart meters will also allow your energy provider to switch those who fall behind on their bills, to pre-payment meters where they will pay more. So the question remains: are you prepared to have your energy controlled by your energy company?
But what you may not know is that once installed, smart meters are very difficult to remove. In fact, in the UK and the USA, it is a criminal offence to tamper with a smart meter, even if it is in your home. The UK Health Security Agency insists that there are no health risks or dangers associated with smart meters, but since when did any of us trust the UKHSA? I certainly don’t. Would you feel more reassured if you knew that GCHQ were involved? In rare and selected cases, it may be possible to have a smart meter removed (Richard D Hall succeeded in this task in his Welsh home), but the process is not for the faint-hearted.
Buyers have perhaps a little more choice that those in the rental market. Not only will renters need to justify their circumstances to local authorities or private landlords; they need to declare their beloved pets and children, too. With demand outweighing supply for rented properties, the choice is limited and time is precious. In many areas in the UK, rented properties are like hen’s teeth and in most circumstances it is on a first-come, first-served basis, so most are grateful when they find somewhere, anywhere to live. But when does a smart meter become one step too far, and are they really as sinister as many make out? I myself am hoping to move soon and it has made me think. Would I walk away from a smart-metered home even if it ticked all my requirement boxes? Er, yes, I believe I would.
Estate agents do not ask sellers whether the property they wish to sell is smart metered. If smart meters are a deal breaker for you, you may wish to ask the estate agent before viewing. Do you live in a smart-metered property? Have you been able to get a smart meter removed, or perhaps you have resisted the barrage of texts, letters and e-mails from your energy supplier trying to persuade you to switch? Please do let us know. We should all say NO to smart meters. Smart meters are surveillance devices; 1984 in 2024.
Stories in Brief
APPG Second Letter of Concern to MHRA
A couple of weeks I ago, I wrote in my blog about what turns out to have been merely the first instalment of a letter written and signed by MPs about serious concerns over the MHRA.
Here is the second part of that letter. We are very grateful to those within the Palace of Westminster who alerted us; you know who you are.
Cancer
Thank you to all those who have written to me saying how horrified they were watching the new Pfizer cancer advert, featured on UK Column News. However, it is not just Pfizer who wish to capitalise on cancer. Moderna, in partnership with Merck, also sees an opportunity in the cancer market—eager to peddle its latest mRNA vaccine for cancer. And, just as it was with BioNTech, the British population will be the first to test out their latest experimental potion. Recently, the Duchess of York has been diagnosed with malignant melanoma. I am sure she will be relieved to know that Moderna’s vaccine will be targeted towards melanoma; maybe she will be a valued royal ‘trusted messenger’.
Pharmacists
Who needs a GP in Britain any more? You probably can’t get to see one anyway. Community pharmacists are the new go-to experts if you are feeling under the weather. Seven more conditions have been assigned to a community pharmacist, so if you are suffering from:
- sinusitis,
- sore throat,
- earache (children 1–17),
- infected insect bite,
- impetigo,
- shingles, or
- uncomplicated urinary tract infections (women under 65 years),
these conditions can all be diagnosed, managed and treated by your community pharmacist. But is your pharmacist trained to diagnose and prescribe? Are they a doctor? Do they know you, and do they have access to your medical records? Whose life is your hands in?
Vaccine-induced turbo cancer may be treatable
A leading oncologist, Dr William Makis, has suggested that the turbo cancers being detected after the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA Covid–19 injections may be treatable.
Melatonin is a natural sleep hormone and has been shown to treat the same cancers (breast, colon, lung, etc.). For many, this will be received with great relief and excitement. However, the question of where you live could determine your ability to access it. Melatonin in the USA is classified as a food, whereas in the UK melatonin is classified as a drug and can only be recommended by a consultant psychiatrist.
Many children on the autism spectrum have benefited from melatonin to help them sleep, yet most have had great difficulty in getting it prescribed. Many families ask friends to bring it back from the USA, where it can be bought over the counter without any need for a prescription. Melatonin also helps night shift workers and long-haul travellers.
Faster, simpler and fairer: Plan to recover and reform NHS Dentistry
The UK has become a dental desert. Many have no access to an NHS Dentist and many also struggle to get an appointment with a private dentist. Last week, I wrote about the UK Government’s plan to expand the fluoridation of water to many more areas. The Government wants you to know that wherever you live and whatever your background, help is on its way, but perhaps not in the way you expected or would want.
As we find in the latest Government report, the British public can expect a mobile dental van visiting their localities in the near future. Dentists will be offered a ‘golden hello’ incentive if they move to areas that struggle to attract dentists into the NHS. In fact, the report has a number of brightly-titled campaigns in order to make you think that all our dental problems will be solved. Wrong.
Another new campaign, Smile for Life, has been launched: an ambitious aim. But how can we achieve this in double-quick time?
Start for Life services aim to promote preventive initiatives to improve oral health in pregnant mums and babies. In order to achieve a ‘smile for life’, your child will receive a ‘start for life’ package of services and will be seen by a mobile dental team. But what will the dental team be doing to your child? Fluoride ‘varnish’ treatments will be delivered to more than 165,000 children, with the aim of strengthening their teeth and preventing tooth decay.
If you are fortunate enough to be living in Cornwall and you are a fisherman, you may already be familiar with the Smile Together dental community, which in reality is a dental van that visits fishing communities once a year to provide oral cancer screening and urgent and emergency dental care to fishermen and their dependent families.
Is this really the future of dental care in the United Kingdom? The dangerous fluoridation of water, fluoride varnish for newborns, and dental vans—is this really the best we can do? Considering the dangers of fluoride, I cannot see this ending well.
Cruise ship unknown illness outbreak
More than 150 aboard the Queen Victoria cruise ship have been suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea. The ship carries 1,800 passengers and is destined for Honolulu, Hawaii. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an investigational notice; pardon my cynicism.
Could history be repeating itself? I am sure we all remember the fate and experiences of many of the passengers and crew trapped off the Japanese coast on the Diamond Princess cruise ship at the beginning of ‘Covid’. Cruise ships conveniently make for wonderful petri dishes and are areas which can be easily contained and monitored/surveyed intensely. No concerns for ‘scientists’ of infection escaping either, especially if you are stranded in the middle of an ocean. Just saying.
Pancreatic cancer—a rise in cases in younger women
Why are cases of pancreatic cancer in younger women (under 55), in the United States, on the rise? According to a study from Cedars-Sinai Cancer Institute in Los Angeles, cases rose 2.4% higher than in men of the same age. Pancreatic cancer has a very high mortality rate and in the UK is the fifth most common type of cancer. Approximately 9,600 die in this country every year from pancreatic cancer. However, do we trust the data from Cancer Research UK, who we know are funded by the pharmaceutical and biotech industry? Perhaps they haven’t read the evidence that we have read on turbo cancer? Or perhaps it is connected to the Covid–19 vaccine? Maybe they have not read an academic paper which states:
We would like to report a case of acute pancreatic injury that occurred shortly after administering Pfizer BioNTech Covid–19 mRNA vaccine (Comirnaty). The report points out the potential need for close monitoring of patients reporting abdominal pain after vaccination (unresponsive to standard oral painkillers) because such symptom can be associated with acute pancreatitis.
I rest my case.
Air travel: ‘high-risk aircraft’ landing in UK
Has anyone noticed an increase in aircraft malfunctions? Windows blowing out, cracks appearing in the cockpit windows and mechanical faults? Air travel was always considered one of the safest modes of transport, but that appears to have changed in 2024. I spoke to a Boeing engineer this week. Shockingly, he told me he would not be flying in the immediate future. He had no faith in the fleet of aircraft currently in service. He explained that due to lockup (alias lockdown), routine aircraft services and maintenance had been neglected and aircraft were taking off without the necessary mechanical checks.
However it isn’t just aircraft safety that is concerning our now-previous chief of borders, David Neal, who has voiced his concerns over high-risk private aircraft landing in the UK without security checks. For airing his concerns, he was rewarded with a high-level firing from his post, by Home Secretary James Cleverly. So what is the Government trying to hide? Who—or what—is being smuggled into our country, away from our prying eyes, and what information is being withheld from the public? More questions than answers.
New travel rules for 2024: e-Visa
As more and more people plan their holidays and trips away, how many are prepared for the new travel and flight rules launching this year?
Tourist taxes, fingerprint checks, £6 EU entry fees and rules on liquids will bring more misery to travellers. It is anticipated that autumn 2024 a new entry/exit system will come into effect. This will apply to non-EU citizens travelling to an EU country.
Digitisation will require you to register your name, fingerprints and facial images along with other data in order to travel. Expect delays and lengthy queues. For those of you who are planning to travel to the Paris Olympics, you will be spared, as the changes will come into effect after the event. The new system will operate at Port of Dover, Eurostar and Eurotunnel terminals.
The requirements of the EU’s European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) will apply to British citizens travelling to EU countries. ETIAS approval is valid for 3 years and costs £7 for adults but is free for under-18s and over-70s.
Argentina
Did anyone notice Lord David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, fire a warning shot across Argentina’s bows this week when he visited the Falkland Islands? The sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is not up for discussion.
Javier Milei, President of Argentina, has called for control of the contested archipelago to be handed to Buenos Aires. Cameron’s visit and comments were too provocative for some, who vocalised their anger on social media. Gustavo Melella, Argentine Governor of Tierra del Fuego, the Antarctic and Southern Atlantic Islands, posted his fury on X:
The presence of David Cameron on our Malvinas Islands constitutes a new British provocation and seeks to diminish our legitimate sovereignty claims over our territories and maintain colonialism in the 21st century. We will not stand for it.
For the record, neither would I have stood for it. Lord Cameron, the UK Foreign Secretary—who, because of his position as a Peer, sits in the House of Lords—is not allowed to address members of Parliament in the House of Commons. We have not had this situation since Lord Carrington, who coincidentally resigned upon the outbreak of war with Argentina over the Falklands in 1982. With Cameron’s ennoblement, Britain’s minister for foreign affairs is unaccountable from our elected representatives. Democracy, like common sense, has gone out of the window.
And Finally
Keep your eyes on the heavens. We are currently reaching the peak of a major solar maximum and the sun has been busy erupting and firing off huge X-class flares, which have significantly impacted earth. A massive mobile phone and internet outage took place shortly after the flares. Governments and service providers are keen to blame more mundane reasons for the outage even though it is clear to many experts that this was 100% a solar event. Are there more to come; what do the governments know that we don’t?
As global tensions increase and an official declaration of World War 3 gets ever nearer, are you prepared for what is to come? It is not if; it is when. Do you have water, enough food for a month? Do you have enough medication to tide you over? Could you survive if the shops were empty and the fuel pumps dead? Prepping is no longer the action of mad conspiracy theorists; many families are quietly stocking up on essentials. But are you mentally and spiritually prepared for what is to come? The window of opportunity is closing. Make the most of every day; don’t put off what you can do today until tomorrow. Time is running out. Don’t be scared; faith is the antidote to fear.
Have you got a plan? Now is the time to have one.
Until next week,
God bless,
Debi
Bible reading: This week, may I suggest you read the whole of Joel 3. Are those the times we are living in now? Here are the first couple of verses.
God Judges The Nations
For, behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land.
