Seen in the News

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Re: Seen in the News

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Stanley wrote: 28 Mar 2022, 02:53 By never allowing such an essential service to pass into foreign ownership. Nye Bevan and the commanding heights of the economy! I'm old fashioned and don't agree with foreign ownership of essential utilities like gas and water. Same applies to transport, how can we guarantee continuity of operation or adequate standards without control?...
In that case you'd better have a look at this too: National Grid gas network
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`UK small businesses struggle with bureaucratic quagmire after Brexit: Companies say they are being hindered by complex new rules in Europe as Covid curbs ease and business travel resumes' FT
`...Russell Antram, the head of EU trade at the CBI, the industry group, said the multiplicity of rules across 27 countries was “a real challenge for the largest of HR departments, let alone small businesses”. “As the virus restrictions are removed the complexity firms are facing is becoming clearer,” he said. “It is essential the UK and individual EU member states make progress in bilateral talks to ease restrictions.” William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) contained more than 1,000 restrictions on cross-border trade in services.'...

Remember this?...
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Re: Seen in the News

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I knew about the gas pipelines Peter and it's a disgrace. Exactly the same 'selling of the family silver' that Harold Macmillan railed against in years gone by. Modern High Tories have no inhibitions, they will sell anything to the highest bidder. (Nye Bevan must be turning in his grave.)
As for Brexit... I suppose we remainers should be pleased to see our worst fears realised. It is exactly what we predicted but I for one take no pleasure in the fact that the truth is beginning to dawn on people, that it was all a con trick to produce a world conducive to moving the national wealth uphill to those who already had more than a fair share.
It is going to get much worse in the coming months and I don't see how the Tories can spin what is coming as a success or down to Covid, Ukraine and the evil EU. (But they will try.....)
Never mind about regime change in Russia, let's have it here. Get this corrupt, inept government out of power!
(If the Tories had any sense they'd do it themselves, if they don't they will be unelectable for 50 years at least!)
Later... a Wiltshire farmer, Sarah Godwin, is reporting on Farming Today that by using slurry from the cows on the wheat crop they are saving £25,000 a year on fertilizer costs. In addition they are exporting their chicken muck to a neighbouring farmer in exchange for straw. They say that the income via the muck is quite possibly more than what they get for eggs..... The world turned upside down!
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Re: Seen in the News

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Stanley wrote: 29 Mar 2022, 03:57 by using slurry from the cows on the wheat crop they are saving £25,000 a year on fertilizer costs. In addition they are exporting their chicken muck to a neighbouring farmer in exchange for straw.
Where there's muck there's brass! :smile:

Another example of how our big companies and institutions lack competence and common sense. It needed the Daily Telegraph to point out the problem for them...
`BT halts removal of landline phones after vulnerable unable to call 999: Telecoms giant says sorry and that it 'underestimated disruptive impact' of controversial policy' Telegraph
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Re: Seen in the News

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Grotesque goings on at the the Abbey. HMQ - ostentatiously, and surely deliberately - accompanied by the leper that is the Duke of York - surrounded by what the Victorian music halls used to describe as the 'Crowned Heads of Europe'. Who knew Belgium still had a King and Queen? Welcomed by the sychophantic C of E dignitaries in fancy dress. This nonsense belongs in another age. :smile:
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Re: Seen in the News

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Couldn't agree more David. I listened to the air time wasted this morning in speculating whether Brenda would go to the Abbey. Obvious she would, let's put it this way, if she can't stagger to the car then from it into the church she's on her last legs. As for going in on Andrew's arm....
We've got a fantasy Parliament and now a fantasy monarchy. Both need radical reform.
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Re: Seen in the News

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I was surprised to find that HM Queen is still 'Head of State' in The Solomon Islands

Seems they are looking at a 'security' deal with China. They're probably worried about Papua New Guinea and Australia being so close to them. It is said there are no current plans for a Chinese military base there. :smile:
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Re: Seen in the News

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I doubt if she could do anything about it if China did have plans..... :biggrin2:
See THIS for news of one of my pet hates. The free parking for essential staff put in place as a sop to underpaid and overworked NHS staff during the pandemic is ending. These charges are a scandal and should be ended permanently. Charging an NHS worker for car parking is an insult.
Question, do MPs pay for parking at the Houses of Parliament?
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Re: Seen in the News

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Stanley wrote: 30 Mar 2022, 02:28 if China did have plans.....
Oh - they have plans all right. . . . . :smile:

***********************************
Further to the Oscars assault incident by Will Smith. I read yesterday, on a site not noted for scrupulous accuracy, that Pfizer who were one of the sponsors of the ceremony, are about to launch an anti alopecia drug, and that this was a factor in the incident. Yeah right thinks I - I never saw such a blatant attempt at 'fake news' . :smile:

Well - check out Ritlecitinib Almost unpronounceable, but definitely it's a thing.

Good grief. . . . :smile:

PS. I'd never heard of Will Smith until our former member Conor Farr did his portrait in a pencil drawing in 2014. Scroll down a bit to see it.
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Re: Seen in the News

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See THIS Guardian report on the reaction of the unions to the renewal of parking charges.
I agree with them, it's an insult. You can't finance the NHS by taxing its staff.
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Re: Seen in the News

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Taunton has its major hospital located 5 minutes walk from the town centre. It was first built as a military hospital for the American Army in WW2 and it has used all available land at the site. There are ground level car parks and a multi-storey car park. It's on the A38 trunk road and there are often long traffic tailbacks due to cars queuing to get a parking space. There's not enough space allocated to staff parking so they park in our residential streets. There are two park & ride services to the hospital from the west (A38) side and the east (M5) side of the town but that doesn't seem to solve the problem. The NHS needs to move some of their services outside the town with ample parking but they won't do it. An area well suited to that has, instead, been sold to developers to build yet more houses...which will lead to more parking problems too. No joined up thinking! :smile:
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`Jacob Rees-Mogg's firm seeks to ditch Russian investments' LINK
The Mogg's investment firm has only got as far as `promising' to ditch its shareholdings in Russian companies. The firm also had a large stake in Indian software giant Infosys, which is part-owned by Chancellor Rishi Sunak's wife.
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Re: Seen in the News

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Chernobyl nuclear plat is back in Ukrainian control. Russian troops are withdrawing back to the Belarusian border. They dug extensive trenches in the forest inside the exclusion zone. The state nuclear company Energoatom that oversees and runs the site has said the soldiers will have inherited "significant doses" of radiation" from their actions inside the zone.

Make you wonder why they would want to occupy the site in the first place! No bullets or bombs required to finish those lads off I would expect. I suppose you could include orders to occupy such a site as a war crime to your own troops. :sad:
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Re: Seen in the News

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PanBiker wrote: 01 Apr 2022, 09:57 Make you wonder why they would want to occupy the site in the first place!
There were various radioactive substances stored there which the Russians could have stolen to add to their own stocks or alternatively to dump it somewhere and claim the Ukrainians were developing and/or using chemical weapons.

I see there's been explosions and a big fire at the oil storage depot in Belgorod just over the Russian border about 25 miles from Kharkiv. The Russians claim two Ukrainian helicopters fired missiles at the depot. Of course it could be a false flag event by the Russians, starting the fire themselves and then blaming it on the Ukrainians. But that seems unlikely when they've got an army of tanks and other vehicles desperately short of fuel in the area. And the Ukrainian helicopter pilots are renowned for their low-flying, below the radar, attacks well honed in the Donbas over recent years.
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Re: Seen in the News

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Bill shock for millions as energy price rise hits
Quality reporting by the BBC :upside_down: I was of the impression we've known about this for months...
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Re: Seen in the News

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:biggrin2: :good:
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Re: Seen in the News

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Not sure how true the story is but, there are media reports that Russia is running out of missiles as the parts for them are are made in the Ukraine. I will need to do a bit more digging but how ironic...
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:biggrin2: :good:
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Russia is running out of parts for not only for missiles but for aircraft, tanks and military stuff in general. As Kev writes, much of it was made in Ukraine and that's why the Russians have been trying to capture the industrial sites there so they can keep the factories running making parts for their own equipment. We, in the far west of Europe, tend to forget or not realise that Ukraine is a very big developed country, well industrialised, exporting worldwide and with many cultural and historical places and buildings. Much of that infrastructure is being destroyed by the Russians, for example 300 schools have been shelled so far. LINK

Viktor Orban has been re-elected as the leader of Hungary. It's a strange business, him being a big mate of Putin yet Hungary is a member of both the EU and Nato. Hungary is taking in thousands of Ukrainian refugees whereas it built a wall when refugees from the Middle East started trying to enter the country. Hungary has become a country of contradictions.
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Re: Seen in the News

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I thought April Fool jokes wre only valid until noon on April 1st.

I read that -
"Rishi Sunak has reportedly ignored pleas for an Emergency Budget as he uses Parliamentary Easter recess to go on holiday. According to BBC Newsnight reports the chancellor has headed to his £5 million property in California, which offers sun, sea and even a pet spa."
I note the Easter is still nearly two weeks away, and it's not as if he has much in his in tray. :smile:

Now I read - that he has asked the Royal Mint to Create a Non Fungible Token

Someone tell me it's just a bad dream please. . . .

I think this is a spoof - but who knows Pay gas bill with NFT.
******************************************************************************
Later that same evening -

I just watched the Robert Maxwell programme on BBC2. He said he was originally from Carpathian Ruthenia. I googled it (of course) and found it quite complicated, and it puts a new perspective on the current Ukraine situation I'd say.
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Re: Seen in the News

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David, I thought your post was an April Fool joke and then I did a search. Good Grief!
How can any politician take time off for a holiday?
I plan to watch the programme on the Bouncing Czech on catch up.
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Re: Seen in the News

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Catch up was off line last night so Maxwell is a treat in store.
THIS caught my eye. I dn'r claim to fully understand it but it looks to me like a case of the government vacillating, did I hear a 'double U turn' mentioned?
If you find any documented case of politics working well please post it to cheer me up!
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Stanley wrote: 06 Apr 2022, 03:38 THIS caught my eye. I dn'r claim to fully understand it but it looks to me like a case of the government vacillating, did I hear a 'double U turn' mentioned?
The government is lost without a compass when it comes to the trans gender debate. I'm sure they don't really understand it, the issue is a complex one. The Stonewall charity/pressure group did a good job for LGB people but then got a new boss who looked for something new to bring in the money - the trans issue. They've spent several years now bullying companies, councils and institutions into paying them thousands of pounds a year (each) for being given their `stamp of approval' and getting them to adopt crazy policies, such as banning the use of Mr, Mrs, Ms. It's an almighty scam and the government needs to address it properly.
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Re: Seen in the News

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Thanks for the clarification Peter. I doubt if this government can do anything 'properly'....
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More on the trans gender debate....I'm glad to see Boris and Javid heading in the right direction at last. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) this week produced guidance saying it was legal for hospitals – as well as other public venues – to offer single-sex services. An NHS equality chief led a health service mutiny over the ruling, labelling it ‘transphobic’ and saying it should be put in the bin....
`NHS must protect wards for women only: Sajid Javid wades into trans row over female-only hospital units after Boris Johnson speaks out on single-sex spaces' Daily Mail
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The Chinese hacking described below has already been reported but now more information emerges and makes it harder to know exactly what was going on and why...
`Mystery of alleged Chinese hack on eve of Ukraine invasion' LINK
`Allegations of Chinese cyber activity as the recent conflict broke out in Ukraine have been emerging. The details appear unusually murky but one Western intelligence official believes the aim was espionage - and the cyber-attack may have been broader than previously reported. The Times first reported that hackers, alleged to be based in China, began targeting Ukrainian websites on 23 February, the day before the invasion. That led to questions as to whether they had advance notice of Moscow's plans and if their intention was somehow to support Russia.....But some Western officials believe the story is even more complex. They claim the Chinese actors went on to target systems in Russia and Belarus, as well as Poland: "Since late February, Chinese cyber-actors have been launching cyber-attacks against government and military networks in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus," claims one western intelligence official.'...
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Re: Seen in the News

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Reading the above seems to confirm my view that we aren't fit to run a planet. We have made the world so complicated and dangerous and continue to make it worse. Add mutual self destruction to climate change....
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Re: Seen in the News

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Tizer wrote: 08 Apr 2022, 09:07 `Allegations of Chinese cyber activity as the recent conflict broke out in Ukraine have been emerging. The details appear unusually murky but one Western intelligence official believes the aim was espionage - and the cyber-attack may have been broader than previously reported. The Times first reported that hackers, alleged to be based in China, began targeting Ukrainian websites on 23 February, the day before the invasion
There were satellite images showing the build up of troops long before the invasion. The Chinese will have their own satellites and will have put two and two together without waiting for the Express or Telegraph to tell them what's going on. Although it doesn't define what is a cyber attack which can vary from complete destruction to seeing what people are doing is all a form of espionage something we stiff upper lips would never dream of getting involved in. James Bond may be an exception of course.
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