Seen in the News

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report which confirms my worst fears about continuing austerity.....
4 hours ago
The Treasury has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare and other government departments amid expectations the chancellor's room for manoeuvre has all but been wiped out. The department will put the proposed cuts to the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), the official forecaster, on Wednesday ahead of the Spring Statement later this month. Sources said it was evident that "the world has changed" since the Budget last October, when the OBR indicated that Chancellor Rachel Reeves had £9.9bn in headroom against her self-imposed borrowing targets.
The recent events in the US have put more pressure on Labour's budget on top of the trends I could see before this that suggested Reeves would be going for more cuts. I have to say it..... Tin hats on Lads!

[PostmanPete]

Looks like Stanley has made it into The Guardian as well as the BBC...!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesig ... el-meadows

[Stanley]

Nice one Pete.....

[Stanley]

THIS is what caught my attention.....
Food prices in Gaza have risen sharply and aid food parcels could soon run out after Israel blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, the UN's humanitarian agency said. OCHA's partners reported that flour and vegetable prices had more than doubled in some cases, with Gazans telling the BBC the same. If the blockade continued, "at least 80 community kitchens may soon run out of stock" and remaining food parcels that "will support 500,000 people, will soon run out", OCHA said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to stop aid at the weekend, accusing Hamas of stealing supplies and refusing a US proposal to extend the Gaza ceasefire. A Hamas spokesman said the halt was "cheap blackmail". The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK issued a joint statement on Wednesday calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza "catastrophic" and expressing deep concern at Israel's action. "A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, such as that announced by the government of Israel would risk violating international humanitarian law," the statement read. "Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool."
Regardless of the arguments and excuses offered, this is using starvation as a political tool and is wrong whoever is doing it. How can it be allowed?

[melaniew]

I can't see the button to write a new topic, so this seems the most appropriate. Today's Guardian newspaper has a centre page spread of factory workers in the 1970s in Barlick and surrounding places. You should recognise someone's feet!

[melaniew]

Ah, I see now someone beat me to it, as I took so long to retrieve my login details from some time ago.
Great pics.

[Stanley]

Glad you liked them. Lots more on the web and some more in the gallery on this site.

[PanBiker]

I can't see the button to write a new topic

Find the thread you want to post in, if its an existing thread, go to the last post and you will see a button underneath (Post Reply), click that and the text editor will open for you to construct your post.

If you want a new topic in any particular forum or sub forum go to the forum or sub forum itself and click (New Topic), give the topic a name in the editor and your accompanying text in the editor box below, click submit at the bottom and you new topic and text will be posted to the site.

It may be worth you visiting the New members read me on the link below which gives more links to other "how to do it" guides.

New Members Read Me

Welcome back to the site.

[Stanley]

I saw THIS in the news ....
A widow whose husband was caught up in the Post Office Horizon scandal is calling for compensation payments for victims to be sped up after she received her husband's offer of redress days after he passed away. Terry Walters, 77, died in February after years of ill health. He was one of the former sub-postmasters who took the Post Office to court in the landmark case led by Sir Alan Bates, which helped expose the scandal. Despite submitting a claim for full financial redress more than a year ago, he died without receiving all the money he was owed. The government says it has doubled the amount of payments made to former sub-postmasters. Days after losing Terry, his widow Janet received a letter making an offer of compensation – far below the amount the couple had claimed. She describes the offer as a "slap in the face," and says it has prompted her to share their story publicly for the first time. "Enough is enough," she said.
I feel so sorry for Mrs Walters and all the other victims of wrongs who are waiting for compensation, the Post Office victims aren't the only ones. If this was MPs pay or something on that level it would be dealt with immediately but 'ordinary people' can be made to wait. Apart from being unfair and inefficient it is cruel and heartless.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on an archaeological find in Dorset....
7 hours ago
An ancient burial site has been revealed to be the earliest known large circular enclosure in Britain. Archaeological research by the University of Exeter and Historic England has shed new light on the origins of the prehistoric Flagstones monument located near Dorchester, Dorset, during the Neolithic period. It has been redated to about 3,200BC, or about two centuries earlier than previously thought. The university said the findings suggested Flagstones may have served as a prototype to Stonehenge.
Nice to see news that isn't about crime, wrongs or war!

[Stanley]

See THIS
"Trump may be the best thing to happen to Starmer," says a diplomat, suggesting the brash property tycoon busy upending the world order might be just what the strait-laced prime minister - who's been dragging in the polls - needs. One of Labour's business backers calls it "the PM's finest hour" - a Remainer leader putting Britain at the heart of international action as Trump rattles the Western world's cage. Sir Keir Starmer has certainly been incredibly visible – in the White House, leading a European summit at Lancaster House last weekend, hugging Zelensky, plotting a peacekeeping path with Macron. It's hard for the Conservatives and other opponents to compete with the prime minister's international moves dominating the news.
But the question being asked is can he inject some of this positivity into his handling of home politics?
He still sounds like a family solicitor reading a will at times!

[Tizer]

`'A pig in lipstick': Trump's strategic Bitcoin reserve criticised' LINK
I enjoyed this bit...
...Some countries maintain strategic reserves of national assets to diversify government holdings and hedge against financial risk. The US also keeps a petroleum reserve. Canada has a maple syrup reserve.

[Stanley]

See Forgotten Corners Peter. We used to have a cast iron reserve.....

[Whyperion]

...Some countries maintain strategic reserves of national assets to diversify government holdings and hedge against financial risk. The US also keeps a petroleum reserve. Canada has a maple syrup reserve.

For when they are in a sticky situation ?

[Stanley]

In the days of Civil Defence I used to see isolated buildings in various parts of the country with the label 'Buffer Depot'. I often wondered what they were. Many years later I found that they were repositories of common items stockpiled by the government to serve as a reserve for use in emergency. Stocks were rotated to make sure they were fresh.
The EU used to do the same thing to regulate prices of commonly traded items like butter or cooking oil. They called them 'intervention stocks'.

[Tizer]

Trudeau has done a good job of standing up to Trump and he'll soon be standing down and replaced by Mark Carney who may not have a politics background but he was in charge of the BoE here during Brexit and was prominent during the 2008 credit crunch.

[Whyperion]

Trudeau has done a good job of standing up to Trump and he'll soon be standing down and replaced by Mark Carney who may not have a politics background but he was in charge of the BoE here during Brexit and was prominent during the 2008 credit crunch.

I dont get the Canada constitution. I understand Carney was not a MP how does he get Prime Minister - is there a 2nd house like the Lords there ?

[Stanley]

I noted his elevation to the post Peter. I always liked his direct and positive attitude and he started well by telling Trump that Canada will never be part of the US. The big problem could be the fact that the Canadian Liberal Party has fallen out of favour and it is by no means certain that Carney will retain the premiership after the expected imminent General Election.
HERE'S what got my attention this morning....
Updated 1 hour ago
Fires are still burning on an oil tanker carrying jet fuel and a cargo ship carrying highly toxic chemicals that collided in the North Sea on Monday morning. One crew member is still unaccounted for and the search has been called off, HM Coastguard said. The collision involved the US-registered Stena Immaculate - which was transporting fuel on behalf of the US military - and the Portuguese-flagged Solong. Coastguard Divisional Commander Matthew Atkinson said 36 people had been rescued, with one person taken to hospital. The missing crew member had been onboard the Solong, he said. One of the men who was on the oil tanker told BBC News that the Solong came out of the blue and collided with the Stena Immaculate at 16 knots.

[Tizer]

Fires are still burning on an oil tanker carrying jet fuel and a cargo ship carrying highly toxic chemicals that collided in the North Sea on Monday morning....

The Telegraph front page says `Foul play has not been ruled out'. The possibility of `foul play' did occur to me too. The US tanker was carrying fuel to the UK for US military jets. It wasn't moving and it should have been impossible for another cargo ship to run into it accidentally. Both crews have been rescued except one man from the cargo ship. It will be interesting to know what his role was on the ship. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but in these days of so-called hybrid warfare there's plenty of scope for disrupting your enemy by what appear to be accidents.

TwitterX is disrupted too and Musk is claiming that the perpetrators of the DoS attack are in Ukraine. If so, which part - the Russian-held or the Ukrainian held?

[PanBiker]

Lets not forget that the perpetrator could be anywhere on the planet and just using a VPN or multiple of same. From experience of fighting the spammers on this site a huge amount of the spam comes via the USA. Trump will probably blame Joe Biden.

[Tizer]

That's a good point, Ian. The attack on Twitter could ultimately come from anywhere. Having also written about the ship collision I now wonder whether the computer systems on ships like the one that ran into the tanker can be interfered with remotely to alter their direction, speed etc - in other words make them act like a giant guided missile.

[Tripps]

A 'man' has been arrested on suspicion of 'gross negligence manslaughter' in connection with the collision between the cargo ship and the tanker carrying fuel for US troops in UK. That seems to be indecently hasty. There has barely been enough time for the conspiracy theories to gain traction. Then again since a 'man' is charged - that will enable all comment to be shut down in case it jeopardises a possible trial. That will be the next conspiracy theory.


One of the 1,400 asylum seekers who have crossed the channel this month, has also been arrested and remanded in custody. I read he has been identified by a newspaper as a member of the banned organisation Hamas. I have believed for a long time now that since this procedure has not applied to any other of the tens of thousands of such arrivals, then the Government - whatever they might say - were tacitly in favour of the trafficking. I still do.

It's PMQ's tomorrow. If Ms Badenoch doesn't knock it out of the park - she should consider different employment.

[Whyperion]

Maritime Law - Even for Coastal Waters - can be and often is , different to English Law / Legislation. There will be plenty talk in the Maritime Press and Marine Accident Investigation Branch Report/s in due course.

I dont know at what point one should stop a would be nasty person entering the UK, by any means. I suppose he was identified , which helps. I still think there is a double standard on HAMAS. Gaza needs a proper government, but is in almost an impossible situation, and like the IRS/ Sinn Fein, while I agree that there is a legitimate grievance on a wrong that someone needs to put right, the pen if not more mighty, in the right place, could be more effective in the long run.

[Stanley]

I heard a man, a Doctor of Computer Science, being interviewed about Musk's accusations and basically he rubbished them, pointing out as you have that such attacks can be given the appearance of being routed from anywhere using the modern technologies available.
As for the arrest of the illegal immigrant.... Far too complicated for me!
I saw THIS update on the collision issued 8 hours ago.
The captain of a cargo ship has been arrested after it collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea. The Portuguese-flagged Solong and the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday. Humberside Police said the 59-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following searches for a missing crew member of the Solong. Smoke is continuing to billow from the Solong, but Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said both ships were expected to remain afloat. German firm Ernst Russ, which owns the Solong, confirmed to the BBC that the man arrested is the master of the ship. It said he, along with the rest of the crew, were assisting the investigation.

[Whyperion]

Fires are still burning on an oil tanker carrying jet fuel and a cargo ship carrying highly toxic chemicals that collided in the North Sea on Monday morning....

The Telegraph front page says `Foul play has not been ruled out'. The possibility of `foul play' did occur to me too. The US tanker was carrying fuel to the UK for US military jets. It wasn't moving and it should have been impossible for another cargo ship to run into it accidentally. Both crews have been rescued except one man from the cargo ship. It will be interesting to know what his role was on the ship. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but in these days of so-called hybrid warfare there's plenty of scope for disrupting your enemy by what appear to be accidents.

BREAKING NEWS: Captain of Solong container ship involved in North Sea crash is Russian national, company says

TwitterX is disrupted too and Musk is claiming that the perpetrators of the DoS attack are in Ukraine. If so, which part - the Russian-held or the Ukrainian held?

Are IP Addresses (assume not spoofed) detailed enough to a region of a country ?