"The news" can be a funny phenomenon. All of a sudden newsworthy matters come to the fore and attract days or weeks or months of news treatment. Then gradually these topics fade into the background or disappear entirely.
Eighteen months ago, Putin's war upon Ukraine hit the headlines night after night but now it is far less prominent and days can go by without reference to Ukraine at all. Weather events like flooding, heatwaves or fire attract the focus of news services and a week later it is as if they never happened at all.
Currently, here in England, the main news topic is concrete - or more specifically RAAC which stands for Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. Just before our schools reopened after the summer break, our esteemed government led by Richie Rich (Rishi Sunak) announced that a significant number of our schools are potentially unsafe because of this building material which was widely used between the 1960's and the 1990's.
With the passage of time and inadequate maintenance, RAAC will deteriorate and weaken - potentially causing ceiling collapses. It seems that our government were warned of this concerning issue years ago but chose to belittle it or turn their back on it. Now the chickens of doom are coming home to roost. It's just what The Conservatives did not need as a General Election starts to approach.
I thought to myself - surely this building material cannot be unique to Britain. After all, it was invented in Sweden. I tried hard to find if it had caused similar anxieties in the USA. Over there, it has different branded names. They do not use the acronym RAAC but the material has been used in thousands of public buildings. Perhaps the maintenance and inspection cycle is better over there or the stuff may simply be a ticking time bomb for America too.
To replace all of our RAAC would cost billions of pounds and in reality, numerous shoddily built schools and other public buildings might need to be demolished. Nobody has mentioned modern housing for the masses which was sometimes thrown up as cheaply as possible.
It's all a massive worry but as I say, it won't be too long before all mention of RAAC pretty much fades from view as the gluttonous news dragons breathe out new items that replace the old. Keeping it fresh, that's what "The News" is all about these days.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/r34kzFH