Seen in the News

[Stanley]

I have to agree....

[Tripps]

The current fishing dispute with the French has been in the news. All reports refer to the crews as 'fishers'.

I know why they do so - but after a lifetime of hearing 'fishermen' it takes a bit of getting used to.

[Stanley]

I hadn't noticed that David. In the past I have heard 'fisherfolk' but didn't realise that was gender related. I often wonder where these strictures originate. The present crop, being gender related seem fairly obvious, 'U' and 'Non-U' seemed to me to be simply snobs trying to reinforce their prejudices.
I wonder what the latest position is on history and manhole covers?
Engineers have always been very precise in their description of male and female threads....
As for the dispute over fishing licences; Private Eye seems to think there is a hidden agenda but I haven't worked out what it is. I wonder if it will come to restricting the electricity supply to the Channel Islands from La France?
We need a new word list starting with merde and sacre bleu.

[Tizer]

George Eustace and his mates are acting like kids squabbling in the playground. Fishing represents only 0.02% of the UK economy and we eat little of the fish ourselves. For example over 90% of herring and cod we catch is exported to the EU. Fishing is also less than 1% of the EU economy and some EU countries have no fishing fleet. Yet if you look at the front pages of our newspapers today you'd think our economy and our lives were dependent on fishing.

As for fishermen becoming fishers...cricket batsmen (at least in Australia) have become batters. There's something fishy going on and I think it's all a bit batty!

[plaques]

How stupid can you get. Our 'Fishers' working in French waters sell their catch to the EU via France. Makes absolute sense with only a few miles to travel. The threat is if the Frogs don't see the light we won't sell them the fish we have caught. We would probably bring it back to the UK at added cost and lose out on the export market. Talk about cutting your nose off. ??

[PanBiker]

They mentioned on Question Time last night that we export 80% of the fish we catch and import 80% of the fish we sell in this country! Total insanity but that seems to be par for the course with our economic planning.

[Stanley]

I totally agree with both of you. There is more politics than common sense on both sides. Macron facing an election and our lot desperately trying to avoid any notion that Brexit itself is a disaster and can only produce more situations like this. Not mentioned are the Scots seed potato farmers and live shell fish exporters.
Ian, your point about us importing fish is just one more example of the problems inherent in being governed by a bunch of detached intellects who know the price of everything but not it's value. This is the same thinking that encourages the planting of trees on good farm land, sterilising it for at least a century, in pursuit of totally spurious 'carbon credits' when we import over 60% of our food in an increasingly unstable world. What they should be doing is what the War Coalition did in the Second World War, take control of farming and nutrition and ensure that we get the best diet possible as the world goes to hell in a basket due to climate change.
How are they going to explain food shortages? We already have some but it will get much worse.

[Tizer]

Imagine being chased down the hill by this - it looks small until you get to the end and see it's a whopper!
`La Palma: 'Lava bomb' speeds down Cumbre Vieja volcano' Brief video

[PanBiker]

How are they going to explain food shortages? We already have some but it will get much worse.

They may be banking on the fact that it may not be their problem. Can they guarantee being re-elected with their track record over the last 12 years?

That should be the crux of it in the real world but I fear without a better opposition leader or a radical change in how we do politics we could be stuffed for a long while.

[Stanley]

I note that the French are now saying that the UK should be punished for leaving the EU and that actions like the fishing licences argument should be expanded to other exports. Johnson says he is puzzled... A likely story, he is getting just the reaction from the French that he needs to be able to claim that it is EU spite that is responsible for what will be a rapidly worsening position. The first opportunity will be Xmas 'shortages'. There is going to be a lot of 'Not me Guv' in the next year.....

[Tizer]

...I fear without a better opposition leader or a radical change in how we do politics we could be stuffed for a long while.

I'm 100% with you on that Ian - even though I might differ in my opinion of who would be the better opposition leader!
Mind you, I sometimes find myself now thinking that I'd vote for anyone as long as they could rid us of the present government - then I realise that's how Trump became US President. If we're not careful we'll go down that same route and folk will elect anyone who promises to `drain the swamp'. I remember around the time of Brexit my friend in her 80s, a lifetime Labour supporter and her late husband a union official, saying she was going to live with her daughter in California and support Donald Trump for similar reasons.

[Tripps]

I just saw the G20 leaders each throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain in Rome.

I calculate that it is forty eight years (almost to the day) that I did the same. I was on my honeymoon.

Quite a crowd there today Fontana di Trevi

[MickBrett]

Last time I was there the fountain was under renovation and had been drained.
My coins bounced around when I threw them in

[PanBiker]

Same with myself and Sally, I took her as a surprise for her 60th and it was dry and had scaffold erected for repair.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on news that MPs have called for a halt to smart motorways for five years so that they can be made safer. With 38 deaths on their plate the transport ministry needs to do something quick.

[PanBiker]

About time but it's only a suggestion so I won't hold my breath just avoid if possible. 14 minutes average to shut a live lane off in the majority of the stretches that don't have automatic monitoring. The best advice if you find yourself in that situation is to stay in your car with the hazards on! Right, I reckon that is the same as standing in front of a firing squad. Middle and outside lanes are where the speedy folk are, former hard shoulder or nearside lane you will just be taken out with an artic. Either way you have to sit and think about it for a while, you will have your seat belt on though which makes it OK.

[Tizer]

On the radio it was said that the conventional motorways with hard shoulders are at least as dangerous as the smart motorways without them. I don't understand how that can be - unless it's because there is more camera surveillance and faster reactions from emergency recovery vehicles etc. In which case why aren't we providing more camera surveillance and faster reactions from emergency recovery vehicles on conventional motorways?

[PanBiker]

That's a bit of a stupid statement! At least on the hard shoulder you could get out of the vehicle on the nearside and step over the barrier which was the recommended safety instruction in the Highway Code in case of breakdown. You cannot compare that with being stranded in any live lane. You cannot mitigate for a stupidly bad idea.

[Tizer]

I agree with that Kev, I'm surprised the journalist didn't challenge him on it.

[Stanley]

Do you think Grant Shapps will ever admit to making a mistake?

[Tripps]

He admitted he was wrong once - he thought he'd made a mistake and he hadn't.

[Stanley]

I wonder how many remember THIS BBC report from 2015. It was a blatant cover up and I remember it every time i hear him speak. I remember that a young man was bullied to the point where he took his own life.
Once of a day something like that would be the end of a career, those days have gone. (See Owen Patterson)

[Tripps]

Must admit I'd forgotten about that episode in 'Mr Green's ' Life. Just shows that they rely on the memory fading to get away with such stuff.

The Owen Paterson affair has to be different though - there I go being touchingly naive again.

I checked that my MP didn't vote in favour , and find that he abstained (as did Andrew Stephenson). I think he might still be geting a constituent's letter though. That would be the first since about 1990.

PS - looks like my threat has produced results quicker than I expexcted.
Fom Guido Fawkes - first with the news as he often is

"The government has been forced into an embarrassing u-turn over the Leadsom Amendment on standards after both the SNP and Labour declared they wouldn’t participate in the new committee voted through by Tory MPs yesterday. In the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg has acknowledged that any reform needs to be cross-party and yesterday “conflated” the need for reform with the individual case of Owen Paterson. The government will now look again at what to do going forward. The word ‘farce’ comes to mind…"

[Big Kev]

I can understand their frustration but they are inconveniencing the wrong people, those trying to get to work or hospital or children to school or delivering food to shops. Why don't they go and glue themselves to the road at the end of MP's driveways or the railings at Downing Street.

They must be reading OG, they've been protesting around Parliament today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59163068

[Stanley]