Seen in the News

[Tizer]

Kev, perhaps the man had already tried suppositories available at the pharmacies but to no avail and felt forced to resort to something stronger.

I was pleased to read this...
`Bolsonaro: Brazilian Supreme Court opens investigation into vaccine comments' LINK
and noticed this too: Mr de Moraes instructed Brazil's top prosecutor, Augusto Aras, to try to establish whether the president's comments are linked to a group of his supporters who are currently being investigated for the large-scale production of fake news. The group, known in local media as the Office of Hate, has spread misinformation throughout the pandemic and has called for a military coup that would give Mr Bolsonaro, a former army captain, unlimited powers to rule the country.

It's not surprising Bolsonaro and Trump are close friends!

[plaques]

From Tizer's above 'Link' the video of Brazil's Covid children's deaths. Very, very emotional, had to switch off half way through. And yet in the UK we are told that children are not generally affected by covid. Something wrong somewhere.

[Tripps]

There is considerable competition for the title 'daftest headline' but this one one must make the finals. I'm still not sure whether it's a spoof or not.

mandatory cat micro chipping

Can it (almost literally) be the politcal diversionary tactic of 'throw a cat on the table' ? Was it intended to take our minds off the byelection defeat at Old Bexley and Sidcup, which didn't happen? This was said to have been a firm manifesto promise, and 99% of those consulted agreed with it.
Note - it's down to Lord Goldsmith provider of luxury free villa holidays to, and friend of Boris and animal lover Carrie.

There are 10 million cats in the country. This will require the setting up of 'OFFCAT' without delay. This is urgent - it's not as if the Government has other matters to deal with is it?

[Big Kev]

There are 10 million cats in the country. This will require the setting up of 'OFFCAT' without delay. This is urgent - it's not as if the Government has other matters to deal with is it?

[Tizer]

From Tizer's above 'Link' the video of Brazil's Covid children's deaths. Very, very emotional, had to switch off half way through. And yet in the UK we are told that children are not generally affected by covid. Something wrong somewhere.

It's a deadly combination of factors, Plaques. For a start Bolsanaro's Brazil is now a basket case and his intransigence, racism and lack of belief in covid's existence means the medical infrastructure has collapsed. Lack of vaccines, lack of drugs, lack of staff, lack of everything. Most of the dying children are black, come from poor families and have co-morbidities such as diabetes, obesity and lack of good nutrition. There has also been a rare inflammatory condition among the infected children which increases the likelihood of death. Blame it all on Bolsanaro.

[Stanley]

I fear Peter is right, Bolsanaro has been a complete disaster on all fronts from forest burning to Covid. It looks as though he is reaching the end, it can't come too soon.
David, I had a similar reaction when I heard the lady on R4 enthusing about mandatory chipping. Could it be that the media are short of reporters due to cuts all round and any content to fill the time allotted will do?

[Tizer]

Freddie Mercury might have had the kids of Brazil sing something like this...
I had this terrible dream
This dream was me and you
I want all the world to see
A diabolical situation
My grief and desperation
Now my dream is slowly coming true
Bolsanaro! Bolsanaro!

[Stanley]

I saw the headline 900 employees fired on a Zoom call. I went looking and found THIS. Unbelievable, and taking immediate effect from today. A happy Xmas to you all and please switch the lights off as you leave....
See THIS Report of Prince Harry saying that anybody who dislikes their job should quit. Good advice if you have £30million in the bank but most of us aren't that lucky.

[Stanley]

Even the Treasury is now warning that inflation could rise to 5% next year if public sector wage increases continue to happen. See THIS BBC report.

[plaques]

This sounds like laying the blame for the current rise in inflation on the premise that by levelling up those who have spent years falling behind would cause a further spike in inflation. Rather than admit that Brexit is the root cause of our problems they are targeting those who are suffering the most from it. The projected 4% to 5% is a given and probably even more than that but they daren't tell us its going to get worse hence the blame game has started.
Remember the 2% TARGET is the number where people don't notice price rises over the year and is still high enough to see government debt eroded year on year out without it becoming too obvious what they are doing.

[Tizer]

Let's have a bit of good news...
`FCA launches new Consumer Duty – meaning financial firms can’t leave existing customers stuck on poor mortgage, savings and debt rates' MoneySavingExpert.com
`A sweeping regulatory overhaul has been proposed to stop banks and insurers mistreating consumers and to ensure, among a raft of other measures, that financial firms are not able to leave existing customers languishing on poor deals while new ones are offered the best rates. The proposed overhaul, which is being heralded as one of the biggest advancements for consumers in more than 20 years, will see financial firms having to provide customers with information they can understand and offer products and services that are fit for purpose. Under the higher standards, which were put out for consultation by the regulator today (7 December), consumers should find it as easy to switch products and cancel and complain as it was to buy the product or service in the first place.

Current practices mean firms are not required to offer new customers the best product or service, or let them know if they could get a better deal than their current one. MoneySavingExpert.com founder, Martin Lewis, said the financial services industry will "fight tooth and nail" to try and soften the proposals. He said: "The way banks operate will change, the way products are designed will change...This is big news."....

[Stanley]

As usual Ken, spot on. Why is the targetting of 'high pay settlements' such a predictable excuse for inflation.....?
Peter Martin Lewis is right, the banks and financial institutions will 'fight tooth and nail'. I'll believe it when I see it happening but don't ho;d your breath. A bit like professional bodies marking their own Cards and yes I'm thinking about some branches of the legal profession. Jarndyce v. Jarndyce is alive and well.

[Stanley]

We haven't heard much of the Donald lately but have a look at THIS BBC report of the decision of the Appeals Court that he cannot claim that his White House Files are private. This could be interesting but is a slow burner.....
Later, I have just heard the killing of an Alpaca described as possible manslaughter by the BBC announcer. Really?

[Tizer]

Perhaps it self-identified as a human?

[Big Kev]

The BBC have outdone themselves this time with stating the bleeding obvious. We're all aware that the 'vaccine' doesn't give you immunity to covid and they put out scaremongering headlines stating that 2 doses won't stop you catching Omicron. They get more like the Daily Express...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59615005

[Stanley]

Kev, I think they've sacked so many news-gatherers that they have to state the bleeding obvious and have long mawkish interviews with grieving relatives to fill the time allotted to them.

[Tizer]

I'm increasingly irritated by the BBC's frequent insertion of noisy trailers between Radio 4 programmes and within the Today programme. Much of the sound of the actual programmes has become poor quality since the beginning of the pandemic, probably due to using zoom calls or working from home, yet the trailers blast out louder than anything else. Also they're using every opportunity to lather their programmes with background music. Likewise for BBC TV. The only radio we listen to live is the Today programme over breakfast; otherwise it's long-established ones such as More or Less, Inside Science, Word of Mouth etc and these we listen to on BBC Sounds.

[Tripps]

This is grotesque - especially in view of the goings on in Whitehall at the time. I hate the phrase 'stay at home carer' which could beneficially be replaced by 'mother'. I realise I wasn't there, and perhaps there is another side to the story, but surely 'words of advice' from the Police would have been enough, but as it did go to court - a conditional discharge would have been more than sufficent.


Lockdown rules

[Stanley]

I agree with you Peter and broadly follow the same listening habits. Hearing the poor sound is bad enough without what they think is mood music.
David, grotesque isn't a strong enough word. I am reminded of the biblical quote, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone'. Equally shameful are Johnson's defenders. High Tories with their snouts in the trough making excuses. There are no excuses, we know enough already and the internal CCTV would have been wheeled out as evidence already if it was without taint. Johnson is shrinking daily......

[Tizer]

I've cut and pasted paragraphs below from a BBC article and the link to the web pages is at the end. It's about the difficulties encountered by people during storm Arwen who lost all communication because BT is changing the landlines from PSTN to VOIP...

Under the old landline system - the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) - home phones still function in a power cut (unless the lines themselves come down) because the exchange has back-up power which feeds to the phone through the line itself. But this system is being switched off in 2025 and BT Openreach, which manages the UK's phone and internet network, has already begun moving people over to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) connections, which work through broadband.....

But Storm Arwen has highlighted a number of problems with the new technology, and its rollout. First, it does not work without power. Second, it does not work if the broadband connection fails. Third, guidance that people use mobile phones as back-up is redundant where reception is non-existent. Fourth, even where mobile reception is reliable, severe storms can damage masts or knock out their power supply. In addition, charging a mobile phone during a power cut poses a challenge.

`Storm Arwen: Why power cuts left people unable to phone for help' LINK

[plaques]

Moved over to VOIP a couple of weeks ago. (SKY) No problem with the phone side although we are at the end of a lot of wire over 1000 metres of it. Also where it pops up onto the telephone poles its routed through trees, not a good idea. Having dropped the landline outgoing calls as an unnecessary expense a minor problem became how many incoming phones dotted round the house do you need, the ringing tone is much quieter on these phones. If the broadband goes down you lose the Whatsapp function on the mobile. Our mobile signal level is reasonable so with two mobiles to go at we feel reasonably comfortable until testing time comes.

[Tizer]

Also where it pops up onto the telephone poles its routed through trees, not a good idea.

Remember what I was told when I warned that overhead wires had tree branches lying on them and they'd be brought down in the next strong winds? "We don't do any preventative work now, we only come out once the wires are down". It's an illustration of the state of our nation.

[PanBiker]

Also where it pops up onto the telephone poles its routed through trees, not a good idea.

It's common sense Ken, sadly lacking in some quarters. Two hops back from my pole the multiplex telephone cable runs through trees and has had to be replaced twice at my behest over the years when my broadband went out. Daft thing is and I know fibre is a lot more resilient, they have run the fibre feed the same way. They don't need to cut the trees down just trim a few branches. They say they cant do that as the trees are on private land, (Merrits, formerly Briggs and Duxbury's) on a steep banking not used by the builders yard. I bet they haven't asked!

[Tripps]

A bit of good news I'd say. The multi billion pound deal to buy Morrisons has been put back for a year due to the fact that the bankers were unable to raise the money, due to market uncertainties. Hooray.

[Stanley]

They kept that quiet David, never heard a whisper....
Peter, I equate the situation you describe with the current dire state of remote interviews on BBC radio. The connection fails with distressing frequency and the alternative they often go to is a copper landline connection....
Is what we have to report progress?