Seen in the News

[Stanley]

Yes I heard the news..... Susan tells me the CEO is Turkish, I was completely thrown by his name.... Tufan Erginbilgic !
It makes so much sense to use them instead of the white elephants we are building...... Mind you I heard later that the new quantum computer at Oxford, supposed to be the fastest in the world, only uses the same amount of energy as an electric kettle.......

See THIS BBC report on the collapsed road at Haslingden....
Major repairs to a road that has been closed since a huge landslip on New Year's Day will not get under way until early 2026, Lancashire County Council has confirmed. The partial collapse of Haslingden Old Road in Oswaldtwistle happened after torrential rain and flooding. The deluge caused a wall supporting the road, as well as one lane of the carriageway, to collapse. Speaking as drone footage revealed the full extent of the landslip, councillor Warren Goldsworthy said: "The scale of the damage and complexity of the terrain presents major engineering challenges."

[PanBiker]

Well, Reform control it all now so they should get on with it!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC In Depth article on Netanyahu.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest serving prime minister and by far the dominant force in its politics, has not budged from what he believes is the essential truth about the war in Gaza. He has given Israel – and the outside world – a consistent message since Hamas attacked Israel almost two years ago. He stated it clearly when he ordered the first big ground offensive of the war into the Gaza Strip on 28 October 2023, three weeks after the attacks, and since then he has repeated the themes many times. "We will fight to defend our homeland. We will fight and not retreat. We will fight on land, at sea and in the air. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground. We will fight and we will win. "This will be a victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death. In this war we will stand steadfast, more united than ever, certain in the justice of our cause." His speech adopted the cadences of Winston Churchill's rallying call in June 1940 of "we shall fight on the beaches," after Britain's defeat by Germany in northern France and the evacuation of more than 338,000 allied soldiers from Dunkirk.......... Very few Israelis have ever doubted that their cause is just, but Netanyahu's statement that they would be "more united than ever" could not have been further from the condition of Israel almost two years later. Israel is as divided now as at any time in its history, and Netanyahu, a deeply divisive figure when Hamas attacked, is presiding over fault lines in Israel that have opened into chasms.
I can't make up my mind whether the news that Israel is so divided is good or bad news..... I don't doubt that Jeremy Bowen is correct.

[Stanley]

See THIS update on the 1994 Chinook crash.
A Chinook helicopter that crashed in Scotland more than 30 years ago, killing 29 people, was being flown as a "show flight" after safety concerns were raised about its airworthiness, a former RAF test pilot has said. Four crew and 25 passengers were killed when RAF Chinook ZD576 struck a hillside in foggy conditions over the Mull of Kintyre in 1994. Retired Squadron Leader Robert Burke said the Mark 2 version of the Chinook had been chosen to demonstrate to the Army that a recent upgrade from the Mark 1 version was safe. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it sympathised with relatives of those killed but insisted the circumstances of the crash had already been thoroughly investigated. The allegation comes ahead of the rebroadcast this weekend of a BBC documentary which first aired concerns about the airworthiness of the Mark 2 Chinook. Sq Ldr Burke, who was a unit test pilot based at RAF Odiham at the time of the crash, made the claim during recent discussions with relatives who have been campaigning for a new public inquiry. He has said the Mark 2 version was chosen despite safety concerns being raised about its airworthiness by RAF test engineers and pilots.
This story refuses to go away, after 30 years questions are still being asked...... I hope the families get some closure.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC news item....
US President Donald Trump's actions have brought the end of the war in Ukraine "closer than ever before", Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said. His statement comes despite the fact that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to reach a deal on a ceasefire at a summit in Alaska on Friday. He also said the "path to peace in Ukraine" cannot be decided without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and that the UK's "unwavering support" will continue for as long as it takes. The highly-anticipated meeting between Trump and Putin had been pitched as an important step towards peace in Ukraine, but no concrete agreements were made despite the former saying "great progress" was made.
I have two objections to this.... First it's an empty statement of the bleeding obvious. Of course the end of the war is nearer..... simply because time is passing!
Second, Starmer is flattering Trump for his own ends. I predict that he will back recommendations of Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in the not too distant future.
Mark my words, in the end Ukraine will be sold down the river.

[Tizer]

The West should have been telling Putin from the outset that if Russia is allowed to keep any of Ukraine's current territory then the rest of Ukraine will automatically be made a member of NATO.

[Stanley]

What a good idea Peter....

See THIS BBC report. I'd forgotten about the Denby Dale Pie!
For more than 200 years - between 1788 and 2000 - the village of Denby Dale in West Yorkshire celebrated all its biggest events with a giant pie. In 1887, to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee the pie included beef, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, 64 rabbits, three hares, 42 fowls, 40 pigeons, 12 grouse, 21 ducks, four plovers, one turkey, five geese, two wild ducks, 108 small birds and 40 stone (250kg) of potatoes. Now, Bryn Walker, who comes from the neighbouring village of Clayton West, and Megan Farquhar have written a play about the Denby Dale Pie's history. "Denby Dale is a real piece of pie history and local village history that everyone needs to know about," says Mr Walker.

[Tizer]

All the EU leaders and also especially the US and Russian leaders should be made to sit down together and read this...

1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances

To solidify security commitments to Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances on December 5, 1994. A political agreement in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Accords, the memorandum included security assurances against the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territory or political independence. The countries promised to respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. Parallel memorandums were signed for Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. In response, Ukraine officially acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state on December 5, 1994. That move met the final condition for ratification of START, and on the same day, the five START states-parties exchanged instruments of ratification, bringing the treaty into force.

2009 Joint Declaration by Russia and the United States

Russia and the United States released a joint statement in 2009 confirming that the security assurances made in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum would still be valid after START expired in 2009.

2014 Russian Annexation of Crimea

Following months of political unrest and the abrupt departure of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian troops entered the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine in March 2014. On March 18, over the protests of the acting government in Kiev, the UN Security Council, and Western governments, Russia declared the annexation of Crimea. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine called the action a blatant violation of the security assurances in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. However, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, “the security assurances were given to the legitimate government of Ukraine but not to the forces that came to power following the coup d'etat.”

Taken from `Ukraine, Nuclear Weapons, and Security Assurances at a Glance' https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/ ... ces-glance

[Stanley]

Well done Peter for digging that lot out! You should be advising Trump and Putin......

See THIS BBC assessment of the talks in Washington yesterday.
Updated 1 hour ago
President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to the White House on Monday to meet US President Donald Trump for fresh talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. Several European leaders also flew to Washington to attend the meeting, days after Trump met Russia's President Vladimir Putin in Alaska for a summit that failed to result in a ceasefire. Despite optimistic words by Trump and some more lukewarm assessments from his European partners, by Monday evening there were no concrete commitments to security guarantees or steps towards a peace deal. Here are the key takeaways from the talks.
Read the article for the detail. Don't expect too much......

[Stanley]

I can imagine THIS coming as an unwelcome revelation to some people....
Builders have unearthed human bones from a cellar while working at a terraced home that police have said could have been built over an historical burial site. The remains were discovered buried at a property on Cleveland Road, Lytham St Annes in Lancashire on Friday and later confirmed to be human. Lancashire Police said they were "keeping an open mind", but there were not thought to be any suspicious circumstances behind the discovery. "Our enquiries so far have led us to understand that this is thought to be a historical burial site, isolated to the property," a force spokesman said. Efforts are underway to identify the remains, which were found by builders at about 12:35 BST.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report....
The government is preparing to take control of the UK's third largest steelworks in a bid to save the business and protect 1,500 jobs. Managers have been lined up to take over Speciality Steels UK (SSUK) in South Yorkshire which is owned by Liberty Steel, a court heard. The future of the company, which uses scrap metal to manufacture steel, has been uncertain for some time and it could be wound up over its large pile of unpaid debts. It comes after ministers seized control of British Steel, in Scunthorpe, earlier this year to prevent the last plant in the UK producing virgin steel from closing. SSUK is home to the UK's largest electric arc furnace which are more energy efficient and are thought to be pivotal in the industry's energy transition. But the company has faced financial troubles for sometime and has been unable to buy the scrap metal needed to produce steel after Liberty Steel's main lender collapsed and unpaid debts mounted. A High Court judge is set to decide the fate of SSUK.
I approve the action but it sounds like a desperate move......

[Stanley]

See THIS for an important decision.
A £3bn deal has been signed to overhaul a 70-year-old aqueduct that supplies water to more than 2.5m customers across north-west England. The agreement between United Utilities and water projects specialists Cascade Infrastructure will refurbish the Haweswater aqueduct, that carries water from Cumbria to homes in Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said: "The Haweswater Aqueduct has served our region well for decades. This landmark investment ensures it will continue to do so for generations to come." The original 68-mile (110km) pipeline was a major feat of engineering when it was originally built and uses gravity to carry 125m gallons (570m litres) of water every day. The project will see ageing pipelines in six tunnel sections, which were excavated with explosives and dug by hand, replaced with new tunnels and a pipeline along the same sections using high-tech boring machines.

[Tizer]

A long article by Frank Gardner, BBC Security correspondent, but well worth reading. We can't compete with the leaders in this race for the biggest, fastest, most destructive missiles. Instead we should lead the race to find ways to defend ourselves from their missiles. Folk will say that's impossible but it's not long since we thought AI was impossible...
`The race for the two miles-a-second super weapons that Putin says turn targets to dust' LINK

[Stanley]

Thanks for the heads up Peter. I am reminded of those days long ago when we all knew about the nuclear arms race and the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction and had to live under that threat. In the end we just got on with our knitting and lived in hope. I expect that's what we will have to do in this case.
I equate worrying about this as being just as futile as worrying about death itself. There's no point if we are powerless to stop it.

[Stanley]

HERE'S a curious piece of reporting. I recommend you have a read.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on council debt.....
3 hours ago
Communities across the UK are paying for spiralling levels of council borrowing with a fire sale of publicly owned facilities, a BBC study has found. Schools, care homes, a boxing gym and even an Olympic legacy equestrian centre are among hundreds of buildings being sold as struggling councils seek to reduce a debt pile totalling £122bn. Chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), Dr Jonathan Carr-West, said "public value" would continue to be eroded until the government came up with a long-term solution to council debt. The government said it was aware the funding system for councils was "broken" and was pushing ahead with reforms to address the problem. Councils across the UK can borrow money from banks or from the government to fund improvements in their areas - from building new schools to maintaining roads and providing sheltered housing. They can also borrow to make investments intended to generate income. Since 2010, they have bought shopping centres, office parks and solar farms as well as funding large housing developments with borrowed funds. Most of that was done through an arm of the Treasury known as the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB) and until 2022 interest rates on that borrowing remained relatively low. Last year, the Public Accounts Committee warned debt levels had become "unsustainable" despite curbs placed on borrowing for purely commercial aims in 2021. But the BBC Shared Data Unit found those combined debts grew by 7% last year. Their combined £122bn of debt is now equivalent to £1,700 per UK resident. Usually, authorities are not allowed to sell off assets in order to fund day-to-day services such as bin collections or social care. But increasing numbers of councils in financial trouble are now being given powers to do so by the government. Known as "capitalisation directions" they also allow councils to take out short-term loans to pay for day-to-day services - but add millions to the debt pile in the process. This year, 30 councils were given those powers, last year it was 19.
I would direct your attention to Brexit, HS2, vanity projects like white elephant aircraft carriers and short term political thinking. Make up your own mind where the money would have been better spent......

[Stanley]

See THIS for a sure sign that Autumn is heading towards us....
Singer Olly Murs is to switch on this year's Blackpool Illuminations on the evening of Friday 29 August, and they will shine nightly until 4 January 2026. The free switch-on event on Blackpool's Tower Festival Headland is ticketed, so if people have not got one of the 24,000 balloted tickets now, then they are too late. However, live screens on the Promenade will allow anyone who missed out to still be a part of the show. Here is some more useful information for the Illuminations, which have been lighting up the seaside resort for over 140 years.
In years gone by this news signalled a rise in the number of coaches from the NE frequenting the coaching pubs in Gisburn.... The Coronation at Horton Lane ends catered for the Sunderland traffic, it was built and run by Vaux Brewery..... The new roads have killed that traffic.....

[Whyperion]

There was a statistics thread
"The reason inflation surged by more than the markets were expecting last month(July) is down to a quirk in the way the Office for National Statistics (ONS) chose to compare air fares.
The statisticians used a bizarre methodology that compared term-time prices in 2024 with peak holiday fares in 2025.

Apparently this increased CPI for the month by 0.2percen compared to what it would have otherwise been.

Personally why are (flights to Europe) even included in CPI , most of us dont fly, and if we did , the cost would not be that significant for trips needing to be made.

[Stanley]

See THIS ......
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has joined a White House meeting with US President Donald Trump to discuss plans for post-war Gaza, the BBC has confirmed. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said the US is putting together a "very comprehensive" plan on "the next day" after the war. However, little else has been disclosed about the meeting. Blair served as Middle East envoy for a few years after leaving office in 2007 - focusing on bringing economic development to Palestinian areas and creating conditions for a two-state solution. However, when Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar was asked by reporters what the plan was for a Palestinian state, he said there would not be any. The White House meeting came after the Israeli military warned Palestinians that the evacuation of Gaza City was "inevitable", as its forces prepare to conquer it.
As David would say, what could possibly go wrong......

[Stanley]

See THIS curious news item about the Scottish Parliament......
An MSP has had his Holyrood pass deactivated amid reports he placed a camera in a Scottish Parliament toilet. Colin Smyth was suspended by Labour after being charged with possessing indecent images of children earlier this month. He is due to appear at Dumfries Sheriff Court at a later date. It is understood that the South Scotland MSP is now facing a further charge from the police in relation to the camera allegations, first reported by The Daily Record newspaper, external. Ahead of Holyrood returning from recess next week, the parliament's chief executive David McGill has informed members that Smyth's pass has been deactivated "given the ongoing criminal investigation". Smyth previously said he was co-operating with inquiries. BBC Scotland has been told by a number of senior political figures that the Daily Record report is accurate. A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: "Given the ongoing criminal investigation, the SPCB (Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body) took the decision this evening to deactivate Colin Smyth's parliamentary pass. "We have informed all building users at Holyrood."
I can only reflect that humans are queer cattle!

[Big Kev]

The merger of local councils may not provide the financial savings it was supposed to, you couldn't make it up https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9wxnlnrxdo

[Stanley]

I saw that report Kev.... More signs of deep incompetence in Downing Street. Why should England tremble?

[Tizer]

Yes, we too got merged `to save money'. Taunton was always renowned for its well kept and beautiful public parks and gardens but the staff, who were very experienced horticulturalists and arboriculturists, were sacked and now we get `run of the mill' contractors who don't know much about gardening. When they cut hedges made up of ornamental flowering bushes they just zip along them like many farmers do these days. The hedge looks tidy for a week but then the brambles and ash stems all shoot out of the top because the contractors don't know anything about plants.

[Stanley]

THIS caught my eye this morning.....
The share prices of leading UK banks have tumbled following calls for the government to introduce a new tax on banking profits. Traders and investors reacted to suggestions that the government could raise up to £8bn a year with a windfall tax on the sector. The proposal comes from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank which argues it is a way to claw back taxpayers' money which is being spent supporting the banking sector. The Treasury said it did not comment on speculation over tax policy decisions, but said the government was "cutting red tape" for the City of London and putting financial services at the heart of its growth plans. Banks were among the biggest losers on the UK share market on Friday with NatWest and Lloyds share prices down by more than 4% in morning trading. By the end of the day their values had improved slightly but Natwest was still more than 4% lower, Lloyds was down over 3% and Barclays off more than 2%.
The financial industry as a whole has such a strong voice in government that they are seemingly immune to circumstances that affect ordinary mortals. It's about time they paid like the rest of us.....