Seen in the News

[Stanley]

And fit a wood burning stove so that in an emergency you can burn the furniture!

[PanBiker]

Apparently you can now be fined £40 for defrosting a car windscreen using the engine demisting system! Noted that it will probably rise to an £80 fine in London.... who is going to enforce this?

I reckon it would be better and a whole lot easier to ban the school run.

[Tizer]

Another scam made easier by social media...
`Polluting greenhouse gases being sold online and smuggled to UK' BBC investigation

[Stanley]

I think defrosting windscreens is a safety matter and using warming the engine as a way to do it is probably no more polluting than any other way. What about people sat in cars with the engine idling to keep warm, I saw three in the Pioneer Car Park yesterday.
I heard that news item about Freon yesterday Peter. I suppose Ammonia is out of favour because you need a better and more expensive refrigerant. What will they use in heat pumps?

[Tizer]

`Parcel firms 'failing to deliver on performance'' LINK
I'm interested to see Hermes getting the lowest score. About a week ago a parcel for us was misdirected by Hermes and today they show another one misdirected for us. In the past they were always very good. The misdirections seem to be caused not by the individuals bringing parcels to our door but somewhere further back in the system.

[Stanley]

I must have been lucky, or perhaps it's a consequence of living in a small town, but I have never had a problem except for one book left on another houses back door step in the rain by Amazon. Considering the increase in volume over the last 18 months they have done quite well.
See THIS for the unfolding story of the deaths of more than two dozen migrants in the Channel. I don't know the answer but I am with Lord Alf Dubs in his call for migrant children stranded in France with parents over here to be brought over immediately with no questions asked. Allowing children to suffer because of the lack of facilities for dealing with the problem and the 'hostile environment' introduced by T May and perpetuated still in the Home Office.
I saw this report later this morning....
"The government is bringing in new measures for bird and poultry keepers to contain an outbreak of avian flu. It comes after a number of confirmed cases of the H5N1 strain of the virus in recent weeks, with several detected in North Yorkshire. There will be a new legal requirement for bird owners to bring all chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese indoors from Monday.". It sounds as though Wendy's flock will have to go into lockdown.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz has been waiting for the second of a two-part delivery from M&S. It's well overdue so she looked at the M&S instructions on what to do and was directed to the chat line. Tried it but all she got was an automated response that took her through the usual list of FAQs and couldn't deal with anything specific. It looks like their proper chat line hasn't recovered from the lockdown.

[Stanley]

I'm not quite sure what to make of THIS BBC report that Speaker Hoyle has been lobbied by women to keep babies out of the chamber. I can't see why this should be but perhaps there are considerations I know nothing about.
My mind goes to the fact that there is no sobriety test before entering the chamber. Has anyone lobbied against MPs who are with drink taken?

[Stanley]

A general point triggered by hearing Cyril Ramaphosa appealing to everyone in S Africa who has not been vaccinated to go and do it.
I don't understand how getting vaccinated against a disease can be anything but a no-brainer. Is it a matter of ignorance or just an attitude of wilful disobedience against any official action?

[plaques]

I don't understand how getting vaccinated against a disease can be anything but a no-brainer. Is it a matter of ignorance or just an attitude of wilful disobedience against any official action?

It all stems back to school days reading Ulysses and the Sirens. If you wax up your ears so you can't hear the call of the Sirens then you will be OK and sail on into the calm blue sea. Same logic is here, call it a hoax do a bit of main line shooting with bleach but don't forget to order your coffin first.

[Tizer]

I don't understand how getting vaccinated against a disease can be anything but a no-brainer.

I've always found the term `no-brainer' a strange construction. To me, anti-vaxers are no-brainers and not getting vaccinated is a no-brainer attitude. Everybody else but me seems to use it the wrong way!

[Stanley]

I've always thought of it as meaning that you don't need to do a lot of thinking to work out whether it is worth doing. So, whether to vaccinate or not doesn't require a brain.
I suppose we all see words in different ways. I love them. This morning I have been thinking about our words for illness, sick poorly. I always thought the German word 'krank' describes being ill nicely and of course with Germanic prosaic precision, a hospital is a 'krankhaus'. (My friend Ethel gave me an even better example of Prosaic precision.... A brassiere (French of course because we don't have a word for it) in Germany is a 'Büstenhalter.' Funnily enough the French use 'soutien-gorge'. Throat supporter.....
Sorry about that trip off piste, as I say, words fascinate me.
Later. I could swear I just heard a report that retailers are making almost 20p per litre on road fuel sales at filling stations as they have not passed on a sharp fall in prices. That sounds a bit excessive!

[plaques]

Headlines today.

Queen congratulates Barbados as it becomes a republic

Perhaps we could make her ecstatic by making the UK a republic.

[Tizer]

...as I say, words fascinate me.

That's a cue for this tip...We always enjoy Michael Rosen's `Word of Mouth' programmes on Radio 4 but in this time of poor programmes and terrible sound quality on Radio 4 we've gone back to listening to his earlier episodes. I'd forgotten how wonderful they are. We listened to the one on Viking words last night and it's excellent. Not just the content but the lovely people with clear `unwarbled' voices. Vikings

Michael Rosen discovers how the Vikings changed English. These invaders brought with them the words knife, gun, slaughter, ransack and anger. But then they settled, using their anger, verbs and great hair to transform our grammar, and our understanding of the landscape. With author Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough and historical linguist Laura Wright.

Try the Anglo-Saxon one too: LINK

[Whyperion]

Apparently you can now be fined £40 for defrosting a car windscreen using the engine demisting system! Noted that it will probably rise to an £80 fine in London.... who is going to enforce this?

I reckon it would be better and a whole lot easier to ban the school run.

The family morris minor was the de-luxe version of 1960 (pin stripe down the bonnet mouldings and door stamping, two external mirrors, black (not colour coded) number plate lamp body, passenger side sunvisor and the normally otherwise optional smiths heater. Though I have taken out the heater for a re-paint and routed a bit of hosepipe though the bulkhead instead , there is no means of routing warm air to the windscreen ! (even when It had a heater I ran into freezing fog on the North Circular near the Thames one morning, the windscreen froze up and I could not see the road carriageways (five lanes into a roundabout) with the fog. Passenger and I had heads out of open door windows

[Whyperion]

A general point triggered by hearing Cyril Ramaphosa appealing to everyone in S Africa who has not been vaccinated to go and do it.
I don't understand how getting vaccinated against a disease can be anything but a no-brainer. Is it a matter of ignorance or just an attitude of wilful disobedience against any official action?

For many in Africa were there not the concerns of the side-effects of the A-Z vaccine and they refused the close to use by date ones. Africa has also been a place where western pharmaceutical companies have experimented with vaccines and other medications on cheap to buy people, sometimes with fatal or worse results. One can see how it is difficult to earn trust.

[Whyperion]

I'm not quite sure what to make of THIS BBC report that Speaker Hoyle has been lobbied by women to keep babies out of the chamber. I can't see why this should be but perhaps there are considerations I know nothing about.
My mind goes to the fact that there is no sobriety test before entering the chamber. Has anyone lobbied against MPs who are with drink taken?

There are bars open at all times the houses are sitting in the palace of westminster. I would prefer that no vote should be counted if they cannot pass the Drink Drive test

[Stanley]

See THIS report of the start of the Epstein trial in NY. The salacious details are going to guarantee media attention and one suspects that Prince Andrew will be following the case with interest.

[Tizer]

These statistics don't surprise me - since the first lockdown began we've seen a lot of newbie cyclists who seem have little idea how to ride a bike safely and also traffic speeded up because the roads were relatively empty at first but then didn't slow down when lockdown ended...
`Cyclist deaths soar on rural roads in England' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard the report and the increase does seem to demand an explanation.

[Tripps]

I've just been reduced to tears literally by the 9 pm news on Sky. To see the poor child who was murdered by his parents shortly after the CCTV foootage shown, and listening to his unanswered pleas for help was more than I could cope with. Should they have shown it ? I don't know, but it's the worst thing I've ever seen on TV.

[Stanley]

Good job I didn't see it David. I take it this is the child you mean.... LINK, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes? Beyond any understanding is all I can say.

[Tripps]

Yesterday I read that

Yorkshire will undergo an independent review into club governance in the wake of allegations made by Azeem Rafiq.
Yorkshire's handling of an investigation into Rafiq's claims came in for heavy criticism.
Chief executive Mark Arthur and chairman Roger Hutton have resigned, with the latter replaced by Lord Patel.
The review will be carried out by the Good Governance Institute and law firm Howard Kennedy and will be shared on 24 January.


Today we are told that

Yorkshire's director of cricket Martyn Moxon and head coach Andrew Gale are among 16 members of staff leaving the club in the wake of racism allegations made by former player Azeem Rafiq.
The total includes the club's entire coaching team.
Lord Patel, Yorkshire chair, said: "Significant change is required at Yorkshire County Cricket Club and we are committed to taking whatever action is necessary to regain trust.

Jumped or pushed?

[Big Kev]

Got to be the strangest news headline so far this year
https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/20 ... his-rectum

[Stanley]

Amazing what people do isn't it....
As for Yorkshire, Lord Patel seems to be having a completely fresh start. I don't blame him, I think 'root and branch' is the appropriate phrase.
I read THIS in full. It seemed to be the right thing to do. It is disturbing but if we don't treat cases like this seriously we run the risk of perpetuating them.
I heard PM Johnson's remarks and wonder at his gall. The politicians have neglected the social services for so long but weep crocodile tears every time a child is killed. If this isn't addressed we will have another case in X number of years and go through the whole guilt process again.