The British wife of the new Governor of the Bank of England writes an environmental blog in which she attacks the teabag for ecological damage/waste. Blames the consumption of paper or similar for the bag and the quantity that end up in landfill.
tinyurl.com/o4nskdx (Daily Wail).
What does the panel think?
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If the biggest thing we have to worry about is teabags then we're in pretty good shape.
Perhaps she should just quickly check with her husband as to whether or not he's aware of any larger problems. Just to be sure.
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She must be an economist.
The cause of environmental damage ultimately is the number of human beings around.
No point looking at the symptoms: gotta treat the disease ;-)
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Other stuff the old bat doesn't like;
- western consumerism
- excessive use of bottled water
- the selfish top 0.1 per cent
I wonder if she knows what her husband's job is?
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"..........the number of human beings around."
Whenever I mention the subject of overpopulation, I am accused of being a racist.
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>>Whenever I mention the subject of overpopulation, I am accused of being a racist
More likely it's when you mention it alongside immigrants and other ethnics spoiling your little world.
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"More likely it's when you mention it alongside immigrants and other ethnics spoiling your little world."
Good, I'm glad we agree on overpopulation. I guess it's possible to determine whether someone is a racist or not by asking if they would welcome a bunch of itinerant caravan dwellers moving onto the green in front of their house and 'spoiling their little world'. After that, it's just a question of degree.
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>> if they would welcome a bunch of itinerant caravan dwellers moving onto the green in front of their house
It depends. If they said "I would hate it if they were foreign but ok if they were English" then I'd say it was easy to detect.
If they said "I don't want anyone there whatever race/nationality" then whilst they may be selfish, I'd doubt they were racist.
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Good, I'm glad that we agree that overpopulation, and xenophobia/racism are two totally different topics, making your original comment invalid.
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I luv some of the comments:
"So the humble tea leaf, unadorned by its own little bag, is going to save the world according to this bankers wife. Perhaps she has forgotten, or cares not to remember, that it was the 'Tea-Leaf' bankers that pretty much ruined the economy of this country and a good portion of the world. Just goes to show what level of intellectual understanding and comprehension this class of person achieves. There are more important things to worry about than the tea bag, in terms of environmental issues, global problems and most importantly,in my mind,deep issues needing to be resolved in this country. Right, I have said my bit and am now off to make a 'brew', tea bag an all!"
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There was a short news item on R4 this morning that said that some scientist or another had stated that all life on earth would be extinct in a billion years.
Let us all eat, drink (tea) and be merry for our days are numbered.
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>> all life on earth would be extinct in a billion
>> years.
>>
I wonder what God will do then?
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He'd have to worship himself.............oh hang on......................
Last edited by: Roger on Tue 2 Jul 13 at 15:06
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>> I wonder what God will do then?
>>
Preach to the unconverted if they're around...................
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Imagine the amount of trees we'd save if we all gave up using toilet paper, and used a sponge on a stick instead.
Don't let your imagination run away with you though!
(*_*)
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Worked for the Romans.
According to a documentary I saw hosted by Adam Hart-Davies there is still some argument going on over whether, in the vinegar tank at a military bog on Hadrian's Wall, there were communal sponges-on-sticks or whether each chap had his own sponge-on-a-stick.
His verdict: "I prefer to think that each had his own......".
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>> "I prefer to think that each had his own......".
'the neck of a live goose... is soft, and imparts a lively warmth to the fundament...'
-- Rabelais, 'Gargantua and Pantagruel'
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"'the neck of a live goose... is soft, and imparts a lively warmth to the fundament...' "
Did they have specially trained ones?
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>> Did they have specially trained ones?
One imagines the geese were passive participants in any practice of that sort. Even reluctant sometimes perhaps.
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what about us tea drinkers that don't use paper bags, is that ok? Or are we still a threat importing tea from far away lands?
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>> what about us tea drinkers that don't use paper bags, is that ok? Or are
>> we still a threat importing tea from far away lands?
AFAIK the issue is with the paper. Processing, bleaching and using in large quantity plus disposing into landfill (though they compost OK).
Like you I avoid the bags at least at home. Proper leaves in a teapot that holds them captive in a filter. Cheaper, better taste and the leaves compost much sooner than bags.
Bags rule at work though and I struggle to get the kids to make it in the pot.
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>> >> what about us tea drinkers that don't use paper bags, is that ok? Or
>> are
>> >> we still a threat importing tea from far away lands?
>>
>>
>> AFAIK the issue is with the paper. Processing, bleaching and using in large quantity plus
>> disposing into landfill (though they compost OK).
Phew at least I know I'm saving the planet in general and the UK specifically, all thanks to my no tea bags tea :-)
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>> "'the neck of a live goose... is soft, and imparts a lively warmth to the
>> fundament...' "
>>
>> Did they have specially trained ones?
>>
Did they creep up from behind or go over the top?
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Rabelais doesn't claim it's easy. One would expect a hands-on approach, a hand firmly at each end of the neck - especially the beak end one would think. The rest is up to the client. Fun to watch perhaps, with a drunk elderly client and a furious gander...
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A couple of years ago we were in York and had some tea for two.... decided at that point to use loose leaf tea at home. And still do. Much nicer than the cheaper tea bags we used. Okay I've gone from buying cheap tea bags to nice loose leaf tea. Cost per cup hasn't changed much.
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>> A couple of years ago we were in York and had some tea for two....
>> decided at that point to use loose leaf tea at home. And still do. Much
>> nicer than the cheaper tea bags we used. Okay I've gone from buying cheap tea
>> bags to nice loose leaf tea. Cost per cup hasn't changed much.
Taylors Yorkshire or the 'one up from basics' at TesBury's are OK as is the Waitrose essentials.
Used to buy a nice one in France, Lipton's I think, but not tried it recently.
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Although we are (not quite) in Yorkshire we have standardised both for leaf tea and bags, on Yorkshire Tea .
Certainly loose tea, made in a good teapot - we use a Picquot Ware one, produces a much nicer cuppa.
Picquot Ware is still made and is VERY expensive, but the two we have had over the years came from auctions or antiques and collectables fairs.
www.picquotware.co.uk/
Tea bags are only OK if a single cup (mug, actually) is needed.
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As it happens my choice in tea is Yorkshire Tea. And therefore tea bags are that as well now. Not that I use them. I think the biggest difference is decent tea.
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"Yorkshire" tea makes a good brew.
Decent amount of decent leaves = good tea.
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I don't so much mind tea bags as those annoying sachets of sugar which proliferate everywhere. Wouldn't even mind them so much were it not for the fact that they tend to contain barely a quarter-spoon of sugar each; if I "go large" at a takeaway stall I inevitably need around five of the damn things.
Tetley dominate in our house (my choice as Mrs HM doesn't do tea or coffee) though I do keep a box of Yorkshire teabags in the lorry for nights away.
I do find it ironic that the wife of the bloke who's effectively in charge of all the tea-leaves in the banking industry should hold such opinions.
I can just imagine the conversation at the dinner table;
"Where's the tea strainer?"
"It's his day off, dear"
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We use Yorkshire Tea Bags.. Discounted of course.
Compost them in a dalek and dig the remains into the soil covered with 5 cms of earth. After 2 years they do not exist... faster than a human body decomposes (she does not wiorry about the impact on the environment of cremation I note..
I suppose when your husband is paid c £800k++ pa incl expenses, you worry about such important things...
Last edited by: madf on Wed 3 Jul 13 at 04:36
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Nothing ruins a good cup of tea more than sugar or sweetener!
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Believe it or not, I thought warmly of Roger this morning. I'd been prowling charity shops for something suitably mid-century in which to serve diluted Bialetti coffee at the breakfast table, and found a one-litre J6 pot that seems ideal. It looked a bit dull and has some minor scratches but it's polished up a treat with a dry duster. Lovely thing, really pleasing to hold and a tidy pourer. The precise way the hinged lid fits its hole is delightful. And if Rog hadn't mentioned the stuff here I might not have looked twice at it.
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>> Did they have specially trained ones?
I'd hope so.
Being pecked by a goose on the leg is not nice. As for being pecked in the privates... X-O
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>> tinyurl.com/o4nskdx (Daily Wail).
>>
>> What does the panel think?
The article doesn't say whether any account was taken of the number of teabags which are used twice before being discarded.
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Aye lad, living here in t'Dales its Yorkshire Tea every time for me. Where men are men and sheep are nervous.
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You can also get ' Lancashire tea '. It's from the same people who make the Yorkshire stuff.
Probably exactly the same apart from the packaging. I suppose it's to do with the animosity between the two roses. When it comes down to it, L & Y will always gang up together against any other, lesser quality, county !
Ted
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So that's all of them then.
8o)
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>>Probably exactly the same apart from the packaging
S'like me fish, I buys tins of wyld red salmon branded asda, princes, or j west.
I checks em all out the other day - all canned at the same cannery in the US of A, with exactly the same code etc.
I'll buy the asda stuff in future as it's the cheapest.
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>> >>Probably exactly the same apart from the packaging
>>
>> S'like me fish, I buys tins of wyld red salmon branded asda, princes, or j
>> west.
>>
>> I checks em all out the other day - all canned at the same cannery
>> in the US of A, with exactly the same code etc.
>>
>> I'll buy the asda stuff in future as it's the cheapest.
Hooray, two more for our side. Brands be damned.
I wanted some plain cottage cheese this morning. Asda smart price - 59p. Asda "Chosen by You" (oh no it isn't) - £1.09. Some posh brand or other - £1.59. I defy anyone to tell the difference in a blind taste.
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Schweppes tonic - with quinine - stops malaria. Cheaper brands don't have quinine.
I drink Schweppes (when I can afford it).
Never caught malaria in my life.
So it works.
Last edited by: madf on Wed 3 Jul 13 at 13:07
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The other thing with well-known brand names is that they're mostly owned by far Eastern con-glomerates thes days.
Princes is now owned by (Ahem!) Mitsubishi Corp.
John West is now owned by a Thailand based conglom.
Even the Spear & Jackson brand secateurs and hedge shears I bought last week are now based in Hong Kong.
Of course, I realise that these Co's still employ Brit peeps at their various plants in the UK and, I also know that the telescopic "razor sharp" shears I bought for £12 would cost a damn sight more if they were Made in Ingerland.
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New Threat to the Planet - Teabags - No FM2R
