Seen in the News

[plaques]

One or two news clips showing Buffoon and his side kick Javid pointing out that there were empty shelves in a store in Brussels. There that proves it is nothing to do with Brexit. Then someone translated the poster that the store had put up. Saying that it was because of a local strike at their wholesalers and was now sorted. Funny how these clips have disappeared from the newspapers and Youtube.

[Stanley]

We are looking at a government in shambles as the chickens from many years in the past come home to roost. Too complicated to go into but you can find reasons for everything from shortage of hospital beds and doctors to missing drivers and potholes in past policies, not only Tory ones but Labour as well.
It feels as though the rate at which problems arise has increased and whilst Brexit isn't the sole cause it is certainly an important contributory factor.

[Stanley]

Later, and I suspect David might have noted THIS BBC account of an 80-1 shot winning the 100th Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
(David, does this mean it was a bad day for the bookies?

[Tripps]

(David, does this mean it was a bad day for the bookies?

No. Exactly the opposite. I doubt British firms paid out anything significant. 'Copped the lot' .

As an indirect result - Britain's richest woman became a bit richer yesterday following the race. It'd take too long to explain it all.

I watched the race. ITV are doing a good job at presenting racing. I've noticed a strarnge geezer who quietly stands behind the presenter during interviews. He was even there in Paris yesterday. He's grown a beard, and was wearing dark glasses, but it was him. Puzzling. McCririck would have dealt with him by now.

[Stanley]

Oh go on David, explain it. We need educating in turf matters! (Or at least I do.....)

[Tizer]

I wonder if this will catch on?
`Getting businesses to share nicely and save money' LINK

[Tripps]

We need educating in turf matters!

Dip your toe in here. Tattersalls Sale

Trigger warning - this site is not suitable for socialists.

[Stanley]

"bought here last December for 75,000gns from Houghton Bloodstock, sells today for 300,000gns. "
Could that be why they are at the sale?
Re being nice to each other. Don't really understand it. They are not in business to be nice. That can only happen when there is an otherwise inaccessible pot of profit to be exploited!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on Johnson's speech today. Than read my paper on loss of control and reflect that his version of Brexit is not taking control but the complete abdication of responsibility. He believes that the market is self regulating and the economy and society will 'level itself out' eventually. This is crazy and I wonder how long it will be before the electorate actually think and recognise what is happening. As I have long predicted, we are sinking rapidly into the Tory's preferred state, 19th century laisser faire. The Project is succeeding and the measure is how fast wealth is transferred to the upper echelons.

[Stanley]

More news about THIS, the buffoon's conference speech. The flavour of all the non-Tory comments (and unfortunately some from within the fold) is one of scepticism. Only the blind faithful believe the messiah of the New Economy.
My reaction is, how many times have we heard this before? Gordon Brown was the last proponent I heard and what followed that? Do you remember his speech to the City bankers. Remember 2008?

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of the reaction of the wholesale market of gas to the intervention by President Putin. It has shown an immediate fall but the incredibly volatile price is still a major worry as energy intensive users are looking at closures.
The UK is seen as more vulnerable than other countries because of high reliance on imports and limited storage capacity.

[chinatyke]

See THIS BBC report of the reaction of the wholesale market of gas to the intervention by President Putin. It has shown an immediate fall but the incredibly volatile price is still a major worry as energy intensive users are looking at closures.
The UK is seen as more vulnerable than other countries because of high reliance on imports and limited storage capacity.

There is another side to this. A lot of energy intensive industries have combined heat and power (CHP) plants. These CHP plants compress and burn gas in a turbine, which drives a generator to produce electricity, and the exhaust heat is used to generate steam. The steam and electric are used on the site and the excess electric is fed into the national grid. Great and functions very efficiently, but in times of shortage of gas the turbine is driven by firing oil and not gas. This increases the cost of the electric produced but reduces the demand for gas.

[Stanley]

I listened to the man in charge of a large paper mill saying that while there is no shortage, the high spot price of gas means that they will have to cut back on hours.
I did the only sensible thing, went out and bought 18 toilet rolls! (It wasn't a panic buy, I was due to get some anyway.) But you just watch, that man said the magic words, "Don't worry, there is not going to be any shortage". I am beginning to think there are four great lies because this should be added to "One size fits all. The cheque's in the post and I'm from the government, I'm here to help you".

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC article on the meeting of the OECD today. One of the main items on the agenda will be to set a common Corporation Tax rate of 15%. Countries like Ireland have been causing problems by setting a lower tax rate, In the case of Ireland, 12.5%, the lowest rate in the world.
An encouraging sign. I wonder if, eventually the OECD could be the vehicle for introducing a global wealth tax.

[Big Kev]

Saw this from the Telegraph, certainly a contributing factor
Government’s switch to greener fuel was ‘major factor’ behind petrol crisis
Petrol retailers were ‘emptying their tanks’ for the switchover to E10 fuel when garages were swiftly drained by panic buying.
The Government’s switch to greener petrol last month was a “major factor” behind the fuel crisis that saw forecourts across the country run dry, industry chiefs have revealed....

[Stanley]

And of course denied by Grant Shapps but who believes anything he says?

[Tripps]

Yesterday in response to a murder by a serving policeman, there was news of a new facility (from BT I think consisting of diallig 888 in conjunction with an app which logged the journey of ladies, (and gentlemen too I assume) and alerted someone if they came to grief. Seems if you didn't arrive, the Police were contacted. They're not busy, and looking for new work I hear.

The Government said "Oh what a good idea" and said they would back it. I think Iheard the sum of £50 million mentioned.

Today a guy said he had done it all, and it had been running successfully for six years. It was an App called Hollie Guard, in tribute to his daughter Hollie who had been murdered. He said he had tried to get the Government to adopt it for a long time. but had failed to get them to show any interest.

(Ed note - probably because it's 'oven ready' - as Boris is fond of saying, free, and you can't bung £50 million to friends.)

It appealed to me as living alone I have an awareness that an event could cause big trouble, and an automatic or easily triggered alert would be handy. Anyway I downloaded it, but got nowhere, and decided it's rubbish, and not what I need. I looked at the reviews, after the event, and find that many others have the same problems.

The quest continues. . . .

[Stanley]

I heard the same story David. did someone grasp at a straw?
Suggestion, attach bowyangs with bells to one leg a la Morris Dancers. Nobody would attack you then....

[Stanley]

See THIS article and reflect, can it possible be 11 years since the rescue of 33 workers from the San Jose gold and copper mine on October 13, 2010, 69 days after the mine’s collapse on August 5?

[Stanley]

Seeing the news about delays at Felixstowe docks triggered memories of the days before containerisation. So here's my Felixstowe story.

During my time on the tramp the private docks started to become a force in the industry. One of the first was Felixstowe and I remember on one occasion being practically dragged into a clearing house, getting a bundle of notes shoved into my hand and being told to get to Felixstowe as soon as possible for a load of potatoes in sacks for Warrington. I went down there and joined a huge queue of wagons waiting for the ship.
While we were waiting for the ship to dock we got the story from the other drivers. This boat had loaded a cargo of Egyptian spuds destined for the Golden Wonder potato crisp factory at Warrington. The shipper was a Covent Garden merchant and he routed the boat in via Liverpool, a heavily unionised port. When the cargo got there they found it was infested with scorpions and the dockers refused to touch it. Eventually they got Felixstowe to agree to handle it if they got the cargo gassed before it left Liverpool. This was done and after much delay the boat sailed round the coast from Liverpool to Felixstowe. By the time it arrived the contract with Golden Wonder was running out. The spuds had to be delivered by a certain date and time in order to qualify for the price agreed. The word was that Golden Wonder had already got a reduction because of the infestation.
I’ve never seen a boat unloaded quicker than that one. The dockers were on a good rate and they tore the cargo out of her. We were allowed any weight we wanted and seeing as it was a fairly flat journey from Felixstowe to Warrington many of us went a bit over the limit. I saw one man in front of me put 20 tons on a little four in line trailer that would have struggled with 15 tons and I noticed that the tyres barely altered shape. I asked him why that was and he said they had 150psi pressure in them. He said that if one blew out it tipped the half axle over on its side! I took twelve tons, roped up, sheeted down and set off for Warrington overnight. It was like a cavalry charge because we all knew that the faster we got there the higher up the queue we would be. I arrived at the plant in the early hours of the morning and joined the queue which wound round every road in the industrial estate where the crisp plant was located. The factory started unloading us but it soon became evident that we were not all going to get unloaded before the contract ran out. Of course, it was in the factory’s interest to have as many of us waiting as possible when the contract finished because there would then have to be a re-negotiation of the price. The days wore by and we got to the stage where the WVS were coming round and giving us tea and sandwiches because we were all running out of money, in addition we could go into the factory and have as many crisps as we liked directly out of the continuous fryers. The first few helpings were delicious but they soon palled! Eventually the contract was agreed and we got unloaded, It was rumoured that the potatoes were bought for 5/- a ton. We all expected a problem with payment for the haulage but Billy said we got our money in the normal time.

[Big Kev]

I was listening to the news reports yesterday of drivers having to wait up to 6 hours for a container at Felixstowe, not much difference to my experience in 2004 at Thamesport in Kent. When we were in the process of moving to Barlick our first buyers, for the house in Kent, were arrested for money laundering at the final stages of the sale. This caused a bit of turmoil and I got a temporary driving job for a couple of months delivering shipping containers, I would regularly be queuing for 3 to 4 hours waiting for a slot to have the container loaded onto the wagon. Considering it was a computerised loading system the allocated loading times were never accurate.

[Stanley]

Sounds familiar Kev.... During my time on general haulage I can never remember a time when anyone went into a decline about a wagon and driver being kept waiting. We could spend days in dock queues often because of slow downs by the dockers. I remember them stopping one day until they got 'embarrassment money' for unloading lavatory pans.... It could get as stupid as that.

[Big Kev]

No idea what the holdup was for containers, the collection docket would give you a collection time and, if I remember rightly, you arrived around 30 minutes before. Once inside the dock gates you would check in and be given a loading bay number and a pager and directed to a holding area where you sat in the cab (there were toilets but you wouldn't want to go in without a biohazard suit). When the pager went off you moved on to your designated loading bay and parked the wagon in the 'marked' spot and put your 'load' number into the keypad.
You could then get out of the cab and double check the 'twistlocks' were unlocked for loading, you would have already set the trailer length for a 20ft or 40ft container (presuming you had an adjustable skeleton. 2 x 20ft on a 40ft skeleton were always a pain as you had to load one and then have to turn around to load the other so the doors were at either end). The overhead cranes were remotely run by the dock computers and a container would eventually turn up above your trailer, a dock worker would arrive with a remote control unit for the final few feet of loading. You could then lock your twistlocks and join the queue to get out of the dock gates, returning the pager and passing security checks (this just involved checking the seal numbers on the doors matched the paperwork), most of the time I had no idea what was in the container.

[Big Kev]

I see the Insulation Rebellion numpties have put their disruptive protests on hold until the 25th. Is it because they were met with violence, from angry motorists, in Essex yesterday or is it because it's half term and they need to take the kids out on a road trip somewhere? I saw the chaos it was causing on my way home, fortunately I was travelling in the opposite direction so it didn't impact me.
There have been numerous arrests and they have been released pending investigation, be interesting to see their reactions when they get locked up for two years for breaching an injunction.
I'm struggling to comprehend why they're protesting, the government have been insulating houses for years, I had a house done in 2004 and I'm sure someone else mentioned the same on here. Was it Tripps?

[Tripps]

Was it Tripps?

Yes T'was I - they're pushing at an open door as far as I'm concerned. Of course there's always more you can do on the insulation side of things - triple glazing for example, but my hut is cool in summer and warmish in winter - so I think it's well insulated. Of course if the Government offered extra measures free of charge. . .