Seen in the News

[Stanley]

I agree Peter, very impressive. But then I have always been impressed by Norway ever since they refused to squander the windfall of North Sea Gas but used it to build a sovereign wealth fund which is the envy of the world. Over here Thatcher used it to finance a war with the unions which eventually failed.
Good luck to Norway, they deserve whatever they get. They have put the hard work in and not allowed the already wealthy to control the economy.

[Tizer]

Yes, I almost mentioned their sovereign wealth fund from the North Sea but a cup of tea called me away. (I'm often in trouble for rambling on about things!)

[Tripps]

I noted that Rachel Reeves on her recent trade mission to China, took with her people and samples from the Brompton Bicycle Company.

A quick search shows them to cost between £2,000 and £4000, although Halfords have an entry level one at £1500 ish. In contrast other folding bikes at Halfords (made in China?) cost around the £200 mark.

I think a Lord Sugar Apprentice type challenge might be of value to the Chancellor. Seeing her trying to pitch to Chinese wholesalers and sell some would certainly be worth watching.
"Rachel - you're fired"

I mention it because I saw this about a week ago -

Brompton

PS The more I think about the more I think we should choose our MP with and "Apprentice" style competition with Lord Sugar presiding. It would be great entertainment, and we would see aspects of their character and ability, not normally on show.

[Stanley]

"t would be great entertainment,"
Not too sure about that David. I doubt if I'd be ditching the Repair Shop for it!

You were right about THIS LADY David. .......
Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned after growing pressure over an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh. She had referred herself to the prime minister's standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, after questions about links to her aunt, who was ousted last year as Bangladesh's prime minister. Sir Laurie said he had "not identified evidence of improprieties" but it was "regrettable" that Siddiq had not been more alert to the "potential reputational risks" of the ties to her aunt. Siddiq said continuing in her role would be "a distraction" for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS BBC report....
About £14m will be spent on urgent repairs at 61 schools in a county to ensure they can operate safely, a council has said. Lancashire County Council's Cabinet is set to approve the plans on Thursday, with "vital repairs" proposed for the selected primary and secondary schools in Lancashire to take place in 2025-26. The programme is funded by a grant from the Department for Education (DfE).
What a sad commentary on our ability to manage an economy..... Would it be unfair to say this is a Tory legacy?

[Stanley]

Breaking news, a cease fire has been arranged in Gaza...... Too early to start analysing what is happening.....

[PanBiker]

Meanwhile before it comes into effect on Sunday the IDF continue killing innocent men women and children in Gaza. I think the news report said 20 shortly after the announcement was made.

[Stanley]

I saw the same reports Ian. Netanyahu is is pushing for as much demolition as he can get before the cease fire becomes operative. His long term goal is still to take over and settle Northern Gaza and he has to pursue that to placate the extreme right wingers who keep him in power.....
HERE'S the latest news.....
17 January 2025, 03:39 GMT. Updated 20 minutes ago
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a "deal to release the hostages" has been agreed. Netanyahu had delayed a cabinet vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, due on Thursday, accusing Hamas of seeking last-minute changes to the agreement. On Friday morning his office said Netanyahu had been informed by the negotiating team that agreements on the deal had been reached. He has ordered the political-security cabinet to convene later on Friday and the government "will then convene to approve the deal", Netanyahu's office said. Families of the hostages have been informed, it added.
We wait and hope......

[Stanley]

See THIS for Mandelson's reverse ferret!
Lord Peter Mandelson, the next UK ambassador to the US, has praised Donald Trump and said his will be "one of the most consequential" presidencies in modern times. In an article for Fox News, external, he hailed the US President-elect's "straight talking and deal-making instincts" and his "great skill as a political campaigner". The comments are a stark contrast to comments in 2019, when he called Trump a "danger to the world" and "little short of a white nationalist". A top Trump campaign advisor later branded Lord Mandelson "an absolute moron". Known as a key figure in both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's governments, Lord Mandelson will take office as the UK's envoy to Washington DC in early 2025.

[Tizer]

More schadenfreude, thanks to Musk. We heard yesterday that his latest SpaceX rocket had a problem. The booster survived, returned and did a perfect landing back at the launch gantry. But the Starship bit at the the top blew up in spectacular fashion and scattered debris far and wide. We learn this morning that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded SpaceX and said it was working the company and other authorities to confirm reports of property damage on the Turks and Caicos Islands. There were no reports of injuries. Elon Musk's company has been told to carry out a "mishap" investigation by the regulator, which will review the findings before deciding if Starship can return to flight. The FAA confirmed it had activated a "debris response area" to briefly slow aircraft outside the area where debris was falling, or stop aircraft from leaving their departure locations. It added that several aircraft asked to divert due to low fuel levels while being held outside the affected area.

I saw elsewhere a report that debris also fell on Haiti. Musk might be popular in the USA but he's annoying and worrying plenty of people elsewhere. Too much money in one person's hands.

[Stanley]

"Too much money in one person's hands."
Yes Peter. I used to say that it was accountants who were our new masters but now I begin to suspect it's the mega-wealthy.

THIS is what caught my attention this morning....
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country is ready to resume the war against Hamas should talks for a second phase of the ceasefire fail. In a televised speech just hours before it was due to start on Sunday, Netanyahu stressed that the ceasefire was "temporary" and Israel reserved the right to resume strikes in Gaza - and had the backing of US President-elect Donald Trump to do so. Netanyahu also outlined what he called the success of Israel's military campaign over the last 15 months - including the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. "We changed the face of the Middle East," Netanyahu said, before adding that Hamas was now "completely alone".
The survival of Benjamin Netanyahu is what we are seeing here. He needs the Far Right, who are against the cease-fire, to support his administration. If they don't, it fails and Netanyahu not only loses power but possibly his freedom. What they have filed to re3cognise is that you can't kill an idea by air strikes or genocide. All you do is reinforce it. HAMAS may have been weakened but it will be recruiting a new cohort of fighters and we haven't heard the last of them!

[Tizer]

And even if they wipe out Hamas they'll still have Iran funding mercenaries and fanatics against Israel.

[Stanley]

Indeed Peter.....
Margaret has just messaged me from Perth, they are expecting 40C today. I think I'd rather have our 3C!
(Later at 03;00, That forecast for Perth has just been updated to a max of 47C.)

[Stanley]

See THIS report from Oxfam......
Oxfam predicts there will be at least five trillionaires a decade from now.
204 new billionaires were minted in 2024, nearly four every week.
Sixty percent of billionaire wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power or crony connections, as Oxfam argues that “extreme billionaire wealth is largely unmerited.”
Richest 1 percent in the Global North extracted $30 million an hour from the Global South through the financial system in 2023.
Oxfam urges governments to tax the richest to reduce inequality, end extreme wealth, and dismantle the new aristocracy. Former colonial powers must address past harms with reparations. Billionaire wealth grew by $2 trillion in 2024 alone, equivalent to roughly $5.7 billion a day, at a rate three times faster than the year before. An average of nearly four new billionaires were minted every week. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990, according to World Bank data.
There is much more and it's worth reading if you are interested in the distribution of wealth.....

[Stanley]

THIS report on the Southport murders grabbed me.
Knife attacker Axel Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. The 18-year-old stabbed Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, along with 10 others on 29 July last year, in a "meticulously planned rampage". As his trial was set to begin at Liverpool Crown Court, Rudakubana, who prosecutors said had "shown no remorse", unexpectedly entered guilty pleas to all charges, including murder, attempted murder and terror-related offences. The victims' families were not in court and the judge apologised to them, saying "we had all assumed" the trial would get under way in earnest on Tuesday......
Rudakubana, of Banks, a village in west Lancashire, also admitted producing the biological toxin ricin and a charge under the Terrorism Act related to possessing an al-Qaeda training manual. Merseyside Police said the stabbing attack had not been declared a terrorist incident despite the discovery of the document. Government sources have told the BBC that Rudakubana was referred to the government's counter-terrorism Prevent programme several times before the attack over his general obsession with violence and he had been visited by police.
Why should he be allowed to take this easy way out? I see that Yvette Cooper has announced that there will be a public inquiry into the murders.

[Stanley]

I saw THIS BBC report about the quality of the phone service at HMRC......
HMRC has denied running a "deliberately poor" phone service in an attempt to push taxpayers to seek help online instead. Nearly 44,000 customers were cut off without warning after being on hold for more than an hour last year, a report by a committee of MPs found. It warned HMRC's service had got even worse since then and urged the tax authority to take responsibility for failing its customers. HMRC chief executive Jim Harra said the committee's claims on its customer service were "completely baseless" and added "we've made huge improvements to our service standards, with call wait times down by 17 minutes since April last year". The report comes ahead of the deadline for self-assessment tax returns on 31 January, which could lead to increased demand for help. HMRC's phone line went dead on 43,690 customers who had been waiting 70 minutes to reach an adviser in the first 11 months of 2023-24, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report said. This was because HMRC's system could not cope with the volume of calls but customers were not warned they were about to be cut off, nor were they called back, the report added. The figure for the number of callers cut off was published by the National Audit Office (NAO) in May last year but MPs have highlighted it among fears HMRC was running down its own helpline. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, chair of the PAC, said HMRC was "excavating its way to new lows" in its customer service every year. He added: "Worse, it seems to be degrading its own services as a matter of policy."
Hands up anyone who believes what HMRC says......

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report.....
The new European Union trade chief responsible for post-Brexit negotiations has told the BBC that a "pan-European [customs] area is something we could consider" as part of "reset" discussions between the UK and EU. Maros Sefcovic was referring to the idea, backed by some UK business groups, of Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM). The PEM allows manufacturers to use parts or ingredients from dozens of countries, from Iceland to Turkey, in tariff-free trade. The previous Conservative government chose not to pursue PEM as part of its post-Brexit trade deal, but some businesses say it will help Britain rejoin complex supply chains that have been hit by customs barriers. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Sefcovic said the idea has not been "precisely formulated" by London yet and the "ball is in the UK's court".
My question is, why is it we are not hearing howls of outrage from the Brexiteers.... ? Could it be that they are admitting defeat? Was Brexit as bad an idea as some of us amateurs suggested?

[Stanley]

Some of us saw THIS coming when the Tories handed over responsibility for an essential part of the infrastructure to an underfunded charity.

[Stanley]

See THIS report.....
The withdrawal of a hospital shuttle bus has been condemned by councillors of all parties as the authority's full meeting unanimously called for the decision to be reversed. The East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) axed the free service, introduced in 2007, with effect from 1 April saying it could no longer afford the £780,000 a year operating cost. The Burnley Council's full meeting passed a motion proposed by Burnley Independent Group's councillor Aurangzeb Ali and seconded by Labour's councillor Fiona Wild. It said the bus was "a vital lifeline for residents". The motion said: "This decision was made with minimal notice and without consultation. "The shuttle bus service was introduced as a critical commitment when Burnley General Hospital's emergency department was closed. "The service has since become a vital lifeline for residents, especially for those facing financial hardship, health challenges, or mobility issues."
We are watching the gradual winding down of essential services. I never thought I would see this happening on the scale we see today. How wrong I was!

[Tizer]

I've just seen this on BBC...
`Bird flu prevention zone imposed across England' LINK

[Wendyf]

I heard that on the lunchtime news and I think we come under the 'increased biosecurity measures'. I registered my small backyard flock of 6 birds with Defra last year and wait eagerly for notification from them.

[Stanley]

THIS caught my eye.....
Two people escaped unhurt when a tree fell on to their moving car during Storm Éowyn. It happened at 08:42 GMT on Friday in Torrisholme Road, Lancaster. Lancashire Police said the driver and passenger had "no injuries, luckily".

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC news item.....
King Charles will become the first British head of state to visit Auschwitz when he tours the former Nazi concentration camp to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation. The King will travel to Poland to join survivors and other dignitaries at a service at the site of the former concentration camp, at the end of which he will lay a light of remembrance o honour those who lost their lives. Sources close to the King say this is a profound visit for him with one aide describing it as a "deeply personal pilgrimage."
Well done that man and about time too!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report.
Temporary accommodation has contributed to the deaths of at least 74 children in England in the last five years, official data shows. Figures from the NHS-funded National Child Mortality Database reveal that 58 of those children were babies under the age of one. Dame Siobhain McDonagh, MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Households in Temporary Accommodation, said the figures were "shocking". They represented "more than one [death] every month… in the fifth largest economy in the world", she added.
I don't know about you but I think this is beyond shocking. It shows what happens when an economy fails to adequately finance social safety nets. We have seen it coming for the last 14 years......
Austerity kills!

[Stanley]

I found THIS disturbing report....
Police have received hundreds of reports of child sexual abuse in high street hotel chains, data shared exclusively with BBC News shows. Of the 504 offences recorded in hotels in 2023, 92% (464) involved physical contact with a child, while 40% (203) were recorded as rape. The figures, provided by the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC), reveal where specific hotels were recorded most were budget chain hotels. Offences in hotels made up less than 1% of the total number of recorded sexual crimes against children in England and Wales in 2023. However, police say the crime is under reported and the real figures are likely to be higher. The NPCC says police forces are "working with hotels to try and raise awareness of child sexual exploitation".
It's a hard cruel world out there and we should be making sure we are doing all we can to improve it. Instead we are 'saving money'!