Seen in the News

[Stanley]

See THIS for a report on Paula Vennells at the PO enquiry.
She wasn’t on trial – but she might just as well have been. Over the three days, Paula Vennells faced an onslaught of hostile questions. Lead counsel to the inquiry, Jason Beer, was subtle but probing. The lawyers for the sub-postmasters, who had the final say, were hard-hitting and merciless. To begin with, the former Post Office boss was poised. There were carefully prepared apologies to the sub-postmasters, to Alan Bates – whose campaign for justice formed the centrepiece of the ITV drama Mr Bates v the Post Office - and to others. There was a great deal she said she couldn’t remember. There was even more she claimed she had never been told. The Post Office may have been aware that the Horizon IT system was deeply flawed, and that a key witness had failed to disclose vital information to the courts. But Ms Vennells, it seems, wasn’t. Then, her composure failed. Asked by Mr Beer whether she had misled MPs about court cases involving Horizon, she broke down in tears. She recovered, then cried again when asked about the case of Martin Griffiths, a sub-postmaster who took his own life after being financially ruined by the Post Office. It wouldn’t be the last time. But her tears attracted scant sympathy from the victims of the scandal watching her in the room.
There is much more. What interests me is how we end up dealing with those responsible for the disaster, like this woman. I fear we will let them all off the hook.

Later..... The IFS has announced that whoever wins the next election will face the worst economic situation for seventy years.
Now let's see, who has been running the economy for the last 15 years?

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report for some very sad news.
A pilot has died after a Spitfire crashed in a field close to an RAF station in Lincolnshire, officials said. Emergency services were called to the field off Langrick Road, Coningsby shortly before 13:20 BST on Saturday. The World War Two-era plane belonged to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby, the RAF said. It said a "comprehensive investigation" would be completed and it would not speculate on the cause of the crash.
This raises questions about the safety of 70 year old aircraft, no matter how well maintained they are.

[Stanley]

I've just become aware of THIS
May 9th.
Cambridge has been accused of pandering to 'mad Americans' after its university press ditched the term from the title of a world-leading journal. Anglo-Saxon England, which has been running since the 1970s, was renamed Early Medieval England and its Neighbours by Cambridge University Press during a relaunch earlier this week. The university said the title change represented the 'international, interdisciplinary and rapidly evolving nature of research in this field'. But author and historian Dominic Sandbrook criticised it, saying it was made because the publisher 'didn't have the courage to say no to a handful of mad Americans'. The term Anglo-Saxon is often thought to have a different meaning in the United States as it has been used by white-supremacists to describe white people of British origin.

Good grief! Is nothing sacred?

[Tizer]

See THIS BBC report for some very sad news.
A pilot has died after a Spitfire crashed in a field close to an RAF station in Lincolnshire, officials said. Emergency services were called to the field off Langrick Road, Coningsby shortly before 13:20 BST on Saturday. The World War Two-era plane belonged to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Coningsby, the RAF said. It said a "comprehensive investigation" would be completed and it would not speculate on the cause of the crash.
This raises questions about the safety of 70 year old aircraft, no matter how well maintained they are.

Very sad news. It looks like something went wrong during landing or take-off, always the most dangerous times. Those old aircraft didn't have ejector seats and they can't be retrofitted - not enough space in the fuselage, too heavy, unsuitable canopy etc.

[Tripps]

The spinners were hard at work on this incident. It was reported - then there was a news silence of several hours. It was repeatedly said that it had crashed in a "field" - well yes but the photo shows it was almost in the back garden of a bungalow.

The fact that it was the subject of a statement by William and Kate must have taken a bit of arranging.
We are told that she may not appear in public again until at least 2025. Simon Webb has said that the whole world knows why, but there is a news blackout on the subject in this country.

All will be revealed in the fullness of time.

[Stanley]

I noticed the news that a woman had been stabbed in Dorset and THIS has appeared this morning.....
Police investigating the murder of a woman stabbed to death on a beach have released a CCTV image of a suspect. A 34-year-old woman, from Poole, died at the scene on Durley Chine Beach in Bournemouth shortly before midnight on Friday. Another woman, 38, was seriously injured and is receiving treatment in hospital, Dorset Police said. A 17-year-old boy, from Lancashire, who was arrested on suspicion of murder remains in custody.
Perhaps our knife laws aren't fit for purpose. These cases occur with frightening regularity.
Later at 05:00. I'm watching the news coming in of Palestinian deaths in Rafah as the IDF attack.
How long can this slaughter be allowed to continue? (Or is that question Anti-Semitic?)

[Stanley]

See THIS for the reassuring news that retail price rises are 'back to normal'. Yippee!
Shop price rises are back to "normal levels" as the cost of furniture, televisions and other non-food items have fallen, according to a UK retail industry body. Prices rose at an annual rate of 0.6% in May, down from 0.8% in the previous month, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and research firm NielsenIQ. The figures also showed that food inflation fell for the thirteenth month in a row to 3.2%.
In other words, the prices of essentials continues to rise and the eagle -eyed amongst you will have noted the shrinking of things like chocolate bars and in my case, the quantity of coffee in a pack, down from 227g to 200g.

[Stanley]

THIS update on the Bournemouth stabbing caught my attention. The 17 year old Lancashire lad suspected yesterday has been eliminated from the inquiries. That must have been a frightening experience!
A 20-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman who was fatally stabbed on a Bournemouth beach. Two women from Poole were stabbed on Durley Chine Beach at around 11:45 BST on May 24. Amie Gray, a 34-year-old personal trainer, died at the scene, while a 38-year-old woman with serious injuries remains in hospital. Police said the man, from Croydon, London, was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

[Stanley]

THIS got my attention....
A child is in serious condition and three adults have been injured after being shot near a restaurant in north-east London. Police were called to Kingsland High Street, in Dalston in Hackney, at about 21:20 BST on Wednesday, after reports of gunshots. Officers, including firearms specialists, and the London ambulance service attended the scene, the Metropolitan Police said. The four victims were found with gunshot injuries and were taken to hospital in east London, the Met added. The force said the child remains in serious condition and that it is awaiting further details of the other victims' conditions.
Sometimes I am so glad I live in a backwater like Barlick!

[Tizer]

We are going to see increasingly more dangerous landslides, mudslides and sandslides around the world - and they're getting close to home now. You might have seen the peatslide that happened in the Shetlands where land was being prepared for a large wind turbine. There was peat below where they were digging on a shallow but long slope. Suddenly the side of the hill began slowly sliding down into the valley. It moved only slowly but if you'd been caught in it or fallen in it you'd have been trapped and probably died. And recently there was the 10-year-old girl who died in a mudslide in North Yorkshire too.

`Flood-risk homes and roads in Cornwall mapped out by scientists' LINK

[Stanley]

When I was in California I learned a lot about the instability in slopes that can be caused by water lubricating the boundaries between layers. The more rain we get the more chance there is of this happening I suppose.

I can't get away from politics in the news this morning. See THIS verdict on Starmer's version of the Labour Party from a former Tory MP.
Former Conservative MP Mark Logan has said he is backing Labour at the next general election, saying the party could "bring back optimism into British life". In an exclusive interview with BBC News, Mr Logan, who represented Bolton North East for the Tories until Parliament dissolved on Thursday, said Labour had been on a "journey" and now offered "centrist politics". He added that the Tory Party was now "unrecognisable" from the party he joined a decade ago.
In other words, Labour is the new home for anyone who is conservative.... I was happier when it was populated by radicals.

[Stanley]

See THIS for a small but important detail that all the parties seem to be ignoring at the moment.
European retailers are rushing to place their Christmas orders early as soaring shipping costs and trade route disruption threaten holiday deliveries, experts say. For the last few months, vessels belonging to Western firms have been attacked in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels backing Hamas in its war with Israel, driving shipping prices up. container prices, which peaked in January and briefly declined, have rebounded sharply in recent weeks. One business told the BBC that increased costs were likely to feed through to the price of big-ticket items such as white goods.

[Stanley]

I saw THIS and it triggered my memory.
A service has been held to remember the 29 people killed in an RAF Chinook helicopter crash on the 30th anniversary of the disaster. The helicopter carrying leading security personnel crashed on the Mull of Kintyre peninsula on the west coast of Scotland on 2 June 1994. The aircraft was on its way from RAF Aldergrove near Belfast to a security conference in Inverness when it crashed into a hillside in thick fog. The incident was the worst RAF peacetime disaster and the reasons for the crash remain unclear.The pilots, flight lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook, were initially accused of gross negligence over the crash. A Scottish fatal accident inquiry (FAI) concluded it was impossible to establish the exact cause of the crash and in 2011 the pilots were exonerated.
At the time this was seen as a severe blow to the intelligence services as so many key members were killed. There were many theories about the reasons for the crash, many of them centred on botched upgrades to computers on board which were controlled by Boeing. There has never been a resolution, only the reversal of the burden of blame originally put on the pilots.

[Stanley]

Food for thought....., See THIS report.
The North Atlantic could get as many as seven major hurricanes of category three strength or over this year, which would be more than double the usual number, the US weather agency Noaa has warned. Normally you'd expect three major hurricanes in a season. As many as 13 Atlantic hurricanes of category one or above are forecast for the period, which runs from June to November. Record high sea surface temperatures are partly to blame, as is a likely shift in regional weather patterns

[Tizer]

The far-right Republicans and Trumpers in the US are still trying to condemn Dr Anthony Fauci...
In a heated exchange during the hearing, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Republican representative from Georgia, made a point of refusing to call the infectious-diseases expert “Dr. Fauci”, instead opting for “Mr. Fauci”. Her suggestion that he didn’t deserve the title of doctor drew rebuke from Democrats on the committee. “We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity,” she told Fauci. “You belong in prison.” Nature

[Stanley]

A terrible story Peter. Such people are ignorant bigots and should never be allowed anywhere near public office.

I tripped over THIS in the undergrowth, it was all news to me.
3 June 2024.
Thousands have gathered for the official naming of Cunard's new ship Queen Anne on Liverpool's waterfront. Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm and Olympic athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson were among five women to represent Liverpool at the ceremony as the city was made the godparent of the cruise line's newest ship. The stars took to the stage at the city's Pier Head and pulled the lever which released a 12-litre bottle of Champagne to smash against the side of Queen Anne, the 249th Cunard ship. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performed to close the ceremony, accompanied by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
A very handsome looking vessel and far more interesting than politics!

[Tizer]

A lovely bit of video of an A-400 Atlas, one of my favourite aeroplanes...
`RAF flypast for D-Day veterans on ferry to France' LINK

[Stanley]

It surprises me we have a transport plane. I heard the commemoration parachute drop over Arnhem had to be cancelled because the RAF had no transport.

[Stanley]

I suppose this should be in a medical thread but HERE is the news item that grabbed me, it could be good news for over half a million sufferers.....
A major cause of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been discovered by UK scientists. They found a weak spot in our DNA that is present in 95% of people with the disease. It makes it much easier for some immune cells to go haywire and drive excessive inflammation in the bowels. The team have found drugs that already exist seem to reverse the disease in laboratory experiments and are now aiming for human trials. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease. They are estimated to affect half a million people in the UK.
That's far more important than politics!

[Tizer]

It surprises me we have a transport plane. I heard the commemoration parachute drop over Arnhem had to be cancelled because the RAF had no transport.

The RAF has now received 22 A400 Atlas transport planes to replace the good old Hercules. It can't have any more because the the National Audit Office says the MoD can't afford it.

I suppose this should be in a medical thread but HERE is the news item that grabbed me, it could be good news for over half a million sufferers..... A major cause of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been discovered by UK scientists....

Sadly, it's only the first stage and it will take many years before the drugs can be made available, probably too late for me.

[Stanley]

Would you join a medical trial if you were offered the chance Peter?

[Tripps]

This will surely be big tomorrow. Remember Tim Montgomerie is a leading Tory.

Time for Sunak to throw in the towel I'd say.


[bbvideo]https://x.com/i/status/1798839171160957134[/bbvideo]

[Stanley]

THIS is what grabbed my attention in the news,
TV presenter Michael Mosley, known for popularising the 5:2 diet, has gone missing while on holiday on the Greek island of Symi. A search and rescue operation is under way, including a police dog and a drone searching hard to reach areas. A helicopter has been deployed from Athens to assist efforts. Greek Police said Mr Mosley left his wife on the beach and set off on a walk to the centre of the island on Wednesday. His phone was found in the place he was staying with his wife, who reported him missing, a police spokesperson told BBC News.
What struck me is that they mentioned temperatures of 48C. I think the last thing I would have been doing in that heat would be to leave the beach and go walking!
I saw your post David, I shall have to dig a bit deeper into politics to understand what it is about.

[Tizer]

Joyful news - they're back!
`Wallace and Gromit return to face penguin nemesis' BBC

[Tripps]

This will surely be big tomorrow. Remember Tim Montgomerie is a leading Tory.

Understatement of the day. . . . and all done by design, not by accident.

There is talk that he is doing it for a spread bet, and hasn't reached the required margin of defeat yet.

Judging by Tim Montgomerie's reaction - Sunak's 'advisors' are either useless or in terror of him. He has once more demonstrated his inability to "read the room".

One caller to a radio phone in gently suggested that Sunak does not have the depth of patriotism that seems to be being exhibited here. It was suggested that being born in Southampton wasn't enough when both your parents were born outside this country. The mere suggestion that ethnicity could have played any part in the catastrophe was enough for the sky to fall in on the caller. The presenter went to extreme lengths to deny it. He had the incentive that If he had agreed to any degree, he would be looking at his P60 tomorrow.

Tonight's hustings with the lower orders taking part, should be a good watch. Angela Rayner against sword lady Penny Mordaunt. Nigel Farage - who I Iearn, has attended the Normandy ceremony in for years in a private capacity will also be taking part. Should be fun.