QUOTE OF THE DAY. TRIPPS ORIGINAL

[Tizer]

I've never heard one giving a warning in the Pioneer Car Park Peter.

This is from June 2019...
`Electric cars: New vehicles to emit noise to aid safety' BBC
`New electric vehicles will have to feature a noise-emitting device, under an EU rule coming into force on Monday. It follows concerns that low-emission cars and vans are too quiet, putting pedestrians at risk because they cannot be heard as they approach. All new types of four-wheel electric vehicle must be fitted with the device, which sounds like a traditional engine. A car's acoustic vehicle alert system (Avas) must sound when reversing or travelling below 12mph (19km/h)....From 2021 all new electric cars must have an Avas, not just new models..'..

(Although the rule doesn't cover older cars the main electric car manufacturers at that time, including Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota, did already have some sort of AVAS fitted to their electric vehicles.)

[Stanley]

I must be going deaf then.... Never heard one.

[Tizer]

Perhaps time to get yourself a pair of free hearing aids from the NHS, even if you only wear them when out on the street. Hearing declines slowly and you don't notice that you're missing sounds. You begin to miss people trying to speak to you when you're not facing them. When you get the aids you suddenly find out all that you've been missing. The longer you leave it the louder the normal sounds will be when you do get the aids. People leave it too long and then complain that everything is too noisy when they wear the aids, so it's better to get them earlier rather than later. Perhaps this should have gone in the Household Tips!

[Stanley]

It dawned on me yesterday that if the sound the cars emit is like a normal engine sound I wouldn't know if it was real or artificial!
As for hearing aids, no Peter, I am trying to make my life more simple. No car, smoking, boozing, gambling, women and pets. I'll add nothing that needs batteries either if I can help it.

[Stanley]

Ben Wallace breaking down under interview about Kabul as he admitted "Some will be left behind".

[Stanley]

Major General Tim Cross, (who knows what he is talking about.....)

"What's the point of having armed forces if we cannot hold a single airfield?"

[PanBiker]

He has a point but I don't think the problem is the actual airfield its outside. Didn't he also say that in the circumstance one burst of machine gun fire and it could all go bad very quickly, someone did anyway?

Johnson is trying to play the statesman in encouraging Biden to extend the occupation by US troops. Doesn't he realise that it's not up to him, he doesn't hold the cards, just a perimeter fence on a wing and a prayer.

[Tizer]

Times correspondent Anthony Loyd, who is on the spot and knows Afghanistan well, today describes being at the airport and watching as Taliban, Afghan army commandos and British soldiers stand together negotiating how to deal with the chaotic crowds of civilians. He said the Afghan soldiers were the ones most likely to lose their rag and cause a fight.

[Tizer]

The BBC News site this morning: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has defended being on holiday as the Taliban was advancing on Kabul, saying "with hindsight" he would not have gone away at all. He told BBC Breakfast the whole world was "caught unaware" by the speed of the Taliban takeover.

It was lack of foresight that meant the politicians were "caught unaware" by the speed of the Taliban takeover. The whole world wasn't caught unaware. The politicians and their intelligence agencies should have read the newspapers.

[plaques]

Perhaps Raab should have taken his holidays in France. But that would mean thinking ahead. That would never do.

"The government will set up a special flight on the morning of July 17th, departing from Kabul, in order to allow the return to France of the entire French community," the embassy said in a statement, adding the flight will be free of cost.

[Stanley]

I heard that interview. he has a slick answer for everything and ignored the core point that instead of following his official's advice he didn't make the call and had an extra two days holiday.

[Tripps]

Compare and contrast -

Boris Johnson has defended planned cuts to Universal Credit by suggesting claimants should rely on their own “efforts” rather than accept “welfare”.

Buried at the end of CCHQ’s annual report released today by the Electoral Commission are some new clarifications of the No. 10 ‘flat-gate’ saga. The Conservative Party officially say they provided a “bridging loan” of precisely £52,802 “in relation to the renovation of the Prime Ministerial residence in Downing Street” in anticipation of the formation of the PM’s now-abandoned “Downing Street Trust”. Conservative Central Office was then invoiced by the Cabinet Office in June 2020. Lord Brownlow then reimbursed the party…


Nearly enough to get me to vote Labour.

[Stanley]

Disgraceful isn't it. And as you say, at the same time they take £20 a week off those who need it most ignoring warnings of evictions and children going hungry. It makes me sad and angry.
Later, I Heard a report of General Lord Richard Davies who used to be head of the UK armed forces adding to his recent outburst about the lack of planning for the aftermath of the Afghanistan scuttle (LINK) by saying that he is fed up with the attitudes and ineptitude being demonstrated by Parliament.

[Tripps]

This really takes the biscuit. Just heard about it on LBC. Quote is from The Independent.

Hospitals have been ordered by the government to describe newly built units and major refurbishments of existing NHS buildings as “new hospitals”.
A communications “playbook” for the government’s new hospitals programme makes clear what ministers would define as a new hospital, and also encourages NHS trusts to press home the pledge to build the new hospitals by the end of the decade.
The leaked document, obtained by the Health Service Journal, has emerged days after health secretary Sajid Javid faced criticism when he described a new cancer centre in Cumbria as a “new hospital”. The Northern Centre for Cancer Care is on the existing Cumberland Infirmary site in Carlisle. Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust, which runs the centre, did not describe it as a hospital.
The document will fuel questions over how many of the 48 projects being overseen by the government will actually be completely new hospitals, rather than involving smaller, cheaper, rebuilds or the construction of new departments on existing sites.

I think the 'playbook' is in fact George Orwell's 1984.

[Stanley]

Spooky country.... I heard an MP in an interview say that the word he had to use for a certain circumstance was laid down in 'the playbook'. They must be given one for every major interview. (I forget what the word was so it wasn't all that important.)

[Tizer]

This is at the end of a BBC story on Muppets creator Jim Henson's blue plaque. Is nothing safe from wokism?...
Earlier this year, Disney added a content warning to 18 episodes of The Muppet Show over what it described as "negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures".

[Cathy]

It’s happening with a lot of old movies, Gone With The Wind is one. Old tv serials too like Fawlty Towers . Can you imagine what they would make of Love Thy Neighbour or Alf Garnet?

[Stanley]

Most of it driven by lawyers manufacturing threats to the business and keeping themselves in work.

[Tripps]

After a full day of Tory shenanigans I couldn't get this out of my head - best Long John was Robert Newton of course, but Charlton Heston was good.

A bit over pessimistic I hope.

"Them 'as dies 'll be the lucky ones"

Long John Silver. Treasure Island

[Stanley]

Undoubtedly an element of truth in it David. We all know what undignified ends many have whilst being 'cared' for by experts. Susan asked me the other day what I wanted when it happens. I told her, go to bed and don't waken up. That really is the best way......

[plaques]

Why am I hearing more of the 'Really really,' double adverb, in BBC reporting, The roads are going to be really really busy. Its really really important. Really?

[Stanley]

Check Ken! Adjectives as well, everything has to be reinforced by a dramatic qualifier. Usually stupid like 'really pregnant'.

[Big Kev]

Screenshot_20210912-183352_Facebook.jpg

[Tizer]

Re Grenfell Tower...
Stephanie Barwise QC said the refurbishment of the tower, which contributed to the 2017 fire, was "hastily conceived by an inept design team led by hapless lead consultants". She said workers and contractors were "reckless" and some practised "fraud". LINK

[Stanley]

hat sounds like a fairly comprehensive indictment! Now, how about charging some miscreants?
(What a good name for a QC....)