WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Big Kev]

Good memories for the family in those pics

[Stanley]

Dead right Kev. We did some with Susan in as well so that Artemis can have images with four generations in the frame. I am lucky in that I have one from 1936......



I'm on Grandma Challenger's lap Mother is behind the table and Great Grandma Shaw is sat on the right.

[Stanley]

I think THIS is disgraceful and heads should roll!
1 hour ago
NHS payroll errors have led to thousands of staff being referred to debt collectors, a BBC investigation has found. Referrals to bailiffs to collect overpaid wages have increased from 1,807 in 2020-21 to 2,683 in 2024-25, according to NHS data obtained by Freedom of Information requests. A number of NHS workers have told the BBC these referrals have left them upset, stressed and in some cases in debt. A spokesperson for NHS England said it had "immediately established a payroll improvement programme after hearing about these awful cases and the distress caused". Dr Tom Horne said the first time he found out he had been overpaid by the NHS was when a court summons came through his door. "They're not thinking about the human being on the end of that debt collection letter... trying to pay their bills, live their life and pay the mortgage," he said. The 42-year-old father of two, from Nottingham, said his experience with Sherwood Forest NHS Trust, which runs King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, had left him feeling stressed and angry. "By the time I left [the] trust, they'd repeatedly underpaid me. They then paid me a big chunk at once - I assumed it was correct. "Honestly, at that point I had no way of knowing," Horne added. He said he finally discovered there had been an error in his pay six months after he left the trust. "I received a debt collection letter and a county court date. I'd never had a court summons before. "It was scary at first, trying to work out what was going on," he added.

[Tizer]

`Two specialist US military surveillance jets arrive in UK' BBC
...The next movement of these key assets will be keenly watched, given many analysts regarded their arrival as being one of the final “puzzle pieces” needed for any US attack on Iran. Steffan Watkins, a researcher who tracks ships and aircraft using open source information, previously told BBC Verify: “If things play out the same way as Midnight Hammer [the codename for US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025] it will show the strike is imminent”.

Closer to home...
`Amazon van rescued from mudflats' LINK

[Stanley]

Closer to home.....



After a circuitous journey my birthday present from David arrived yesterday.... I'm not going to say you shouldn't have.... It is a welcome and very generous present!

[Tizer]

At first you think this van driver was obviously to blame but read through and you find all sorts of other factors are involved. A lot of failures led to the outcome...
`How a fatal crash happened on a smart motorway' LINK

[Stanley]

"O'Sullivan's defence was that the failure of the smart motorway technology made the collision inevitable. "
That's the key phrase I think Peter. He was right and that should have been a defence. This accident was nothing to do with the fact there was no hard shoulder, everything to do with the fact that no warning was given of an obstruction in the fast lane. That in turn probably points to a lack of resources aimed at protecting drivers who find themselves in such situations which are outside their control.

[Tizer]

Here's another road/car problem that's been thrown at us...
`Why there's no quick fix in sight for the problem of dazzling headlights' BBC

Something less annoying...
`'Smiling' fossil discovered on Holy Island' LINK

[Stanley]

I saw THIS and thought it was worth adding to the Andrew files.....
When Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested at about 08:00 on Thursday, it had nothing to do with Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of sexual abuse. What led to him being arrested started with information that came out in the massive Epstein file release in January, around activities while he was a trade envoy for the British government. But it will not have stopped there. It was emails in those files that seem to be between Andrew and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that led to Thames Valley Police getting involved. One email in particular stood out. In November 2010, after Andrew had returned from a UK government-funded trip to Asia, he was sent a series of country reports relating to his trip. Within five minutes of receiving them he seems to have forwarded them to Epstein, who had by this point already been convicted and spent time in prison for sex offences. There were further email revelations from the files. A month later, on Christmas Eve, Andrew appeared to email Epstein a confidential briefing on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, which was overseen at the time by British armed forces and funded by UK government money. In a further email dated 9 February 2011, Andrew seems to suggest Epstein invest in a private equity firm he had visited a week before. These will have formed the beginning of what today turned into a full investigation by Thames Valley Police. But detectives will have not relied only on the emails that we have seen. In order to build a case they will have gone to the government and to the palace asking for emails that might explain what was going on. The palace said last Monday that it would "support" Thames Valley Police. Detectives will also have done their own trawl of the three million documents in the Epstein files, and they will have asked for unredacted copies from the FBI or the US Department of Justice. The National Crime Agency is helping UK police forces with those requests. So far we have seen only the tip of the iceberg, but detectives may have seen more of what lies under the surface It is highly unlikely that the police arrested Andrew on Thursday on the basis of just a couple of emails people have seen within the Epstein files.
I get the feeling that there are going to be further revelations. This is nowhere near over.

[Big Kev]

The royal family are said to be devastated by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's car crash next Wednesday

[Tripps]

I get the feeling that there are going to be further revelations. This is nowhere near over.

Bringing charges will depend on the action of the Crown Prosecution Service. Plenty of scope there for second thoughts. 'Not in the public interest'' or 'insuffient evidence' would do. I doubt the public would put up with that now though. Stand by for a long wait.


PS - See here Legal stuff. Plenty of wriggle room there.
I expect a long drawn out affair with no serious consequences for the Andrew formerly known as Prince.

[Tripps]

my birthday present from David arrived yesterday.

It's customary not to speak of the cost of gifts, but this needs recording as a mark of the cost of living currently, and the imbalance of trade wth China.

I discovered that Stanley's watch cost 15 pence less than the cost of a large Cod and Chips at the village chippy.

Something is badly out of kilter there I'd say. probably both are not natural prices.

[Tizer]

US building up its military on the way to the Middle East. It's a pity Trump doesn't do more to help the Ukrainians...
`Virginia-based US Air Force F-22 Raptors spotted at RAF Lakenheath' BBC Verify

`Tracking US Air Force activity over Europe and the Middle East' BBC Verify

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of yet more problems in the Church.....
The Bishop of Lincoln, the Right Reverend Stephen Conway, has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. Lincolnshire Police said an arrest of a 68-year-old man was part of an "ongoing investigation following an allegation that a man was sexually assaulted between 2018 and 2025". Earlier, the Church of England said Conway had been suspended from ministry while a "safeguarding complaint" was being investigated, and had been passed to the "appropriate statutory authorities". Police said the bishop has been released on conditional bail. The BBC has attempted to contact him for comment
Is everything falling apart?

[Stanley]

See [url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/article ... wqn3o]THIS[/url] BBC report about tariffs.
US President Donald Trump has said that he will impose global tariffs of 15%, as he continued to rail against a Supreme Court ruling that struck down his previous import taxes. Trump said on Friday that he would replace the tariffs scrapped by the court with a 10% levy on all goods coming into the US. But on Saturday, he announced on Truth Social that this would be increased to the maximum allowed under a never-used trade law. That law allows these new tariffs to stay in place for around five months before the administration must seek congressional approval. The 10% tariffs were set to come into force on Tuesday, 24 February. It's unclear if the increased 15% would also be imposed starting then. The BBC has contacted the White House. The new 15% tax rate - a temporary solution under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act - raises questions for countries such as the UK and Australia, which had agreed a 10% tariff deal with the US. Trump said his administration had reached the decision to raise the levy following a review of the Supreme Court's "ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday". In a 6-3 decision, justices on the highest US court found that the president had overstepped his powers when he introduced sweeping global tariffs last year using a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The US has already collected at least $130bn in tariffs using IEEPA, according to the most recent government data. Immediately following the ruling, Trump said that he was "ashamed of certain members of the court" and called the justices who rejected his trade policy "fools". The ruling to strike down the tariffs was decided by the court's three liberal justices, Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative nominated by George W Bush and two justices nominated by Trump: Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch.
It would appear that Trump's attempt to control the Supreme Court is failing and he now faces attempts to reclaim money paid out under illegal tariffs.

[Cathy]

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN
.
Wishing you a Great Birthday

[Gloria]

Happy Birthday Kevin, enjoy your day.

[Big Kev]

Thank you, most appreciated

[Wendyf]

Happy Birthday Kev!

[Big Kev]

Thank you

[Stanley]

Many happy returns Kev.

[Tizer]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEV!!

[Big Kev]

How can I be 65?

[PanBiker]

Happy birthday Kev, It's easy to be 65. I'm fairly certain that time speeds up the older you get. I have no idea how I got to 72 so fast

[Big Kev]