Seen in the News

[plaques]

I had exactly the same reaction David. School leavers entering doctor training immediately after leaving school?
It can only be described as madness.

Not unless they describe trainees as doctors and add them to the statistics list as we are doing now. On the plus side there are thousands of good clever youngsters who are quite capable of becoming doctors but can't afford to go down a route that requires support from relatively wealthy parents. Open University was a success why not doctor training. Having said that it will still take years and better pay and conditions before these newly qualified doctors will make any difference to the mess that 10 years of Tory rule has got us into.

[Tizer]

It's interesting to look back at the BMA's attitude towards increasing the number of doctors back in 2008. It's no wonder we are short of them....
`BMA meeting: Doctors vote to limit number of medical students' BMJ

[Tripps]

I think I've seen that before - but it's still shocking. Restrictive practices from a professional body? Sir Fred Kite . .

********************

This has been around since the weekend. The caption speaks for itself, but others say the 'potholes' are in fact metal access covers being covered in sand, to ensure that the horses don't slip. I really don't know which it is - just that it's best not to trust any photo on the interweb thingy, and perhaps take into account the politics of the poster.

wet sand.jpg

[Tizer]

Tripps, the Full Fact web site agrees with you on the prevention of horses slipping: Full Fact

`Gov.uk giving false and misleading information to students applying for loans and their parents – Martin Lewis calls for urgent correction' Martin Lewis
An update now says: After MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis’s letter last week, the Student Loans Company has corrected the text on Gov.uk (which we believe has been wrong for at least two years). We have been told a formal response from the chief executive to Martin will come soon, and we will wait to see if it addresses those people who were misled by the old information.

This will help the Ukrainians but the Russian missiles have a much longer range...
`UK confirms supply of Storm Shadow long-range missiles in Ukraine'

[Stanley]

I hold no brief for the accuracy of the report but have a look at THIS report.
A black hair found on a barbed fire fence following a sheep attack, in an area where sightings of big cats had been reported, came back as a 99% match to a big cat species
Only a single hair......

[Stanley]

See THIS report on the state of DEFRA's administration.
Outdated IT systems are damaging the work of the government department in charge of protecting the environment and supporting farmers, MPs say. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) still relies heavily on paper forms, according to the public accounts committee. And many of its computers are expensive to maintain and at risk of crashes and security breaches, the MPs warn. In 2021, Defra was given £871m for digital investment. Of that, £366m was meant to be used to bring the department's IT systems up to date. The department has said one of its biggest problem areas was the system used to record bovine tuberculosis tests results from vets and farmers. It explained that the system was too old to run on the operating system used by many newer devices, and vets had to buy old laptops on eBay to be able to run Defra's programme.
I wonder how common this is in the rest of government? I suspect that this is just the tip of a very big iceberg.

[Tizer]

We can add to that this news from 2020...
`'Outdated' IT leaves NHS staff with 15 different computer logins' BBC

...and this from March this year...
`Four in 10 NHS hospitals in England found to use outdated equipment in Lib Dem study
This article is more than 1 month old: Party calls for urgent extra funding as it finds there are hundreds of old X-ray machines, CT scanners and radiotherapy machines in use' Guardian

[Stanley]

The bottom line is that across the whole of government spending on IT was not at the correct level even before Osborne started his austerity drive 13 years ago when every government department and public service was hit with cuts in annual funding. Just like the public services wages, the problem builds slowly over the years and decades until eventually the system breaks and is 'too expensive to fix'. Why can't politicians join the real world and accept that all enterprises need planned maintenance and upgrading of capital equipment continuously. This can be postponed but at a cost, it can never be totally ignored.

[Tripps]

I read tonight that a very senior C of E clergyman has been ordered to 'step back ' from his duties immediately because he failed to take action concerning a report of sexual abuse by one of his clergy. That took a long time, was my first thought.

Can it possibly refer to this chap https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... wyers.html

Or was it perhaps in connection with this business https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... tian-camps

Well - no actually it's former Archbishop of York, John Sentamu who is the one. I don't know a lot about him, but found Welby's Wikipedia entry was fascinating. I supposed they stopped the background check on him when they reached the 'educated at Eton' point. Most surprising was that he is married with six children. Can't help thinking there is a loose connection with the absolute monstering that Mr Speaker gave to Kemi Badenoch this week. Many others have more than deserved one, but not had the treatment.

[Stanley]

Oh dear. I had missed that one. Good job he wasn't still in post in view of the duties at the Coronation.

Seen in PE yesterday.

[Stanley]

See THIS if you want evidence some people live in different worlds than us. Occasionally their legal defences break down and we get a glimpse through the furnace door....

[plaques]

I wonder if the Conservative party will hand back the donations to the people who it was stolen from? Don't be silly.

"That should be a concern, not just to people who are worried about where that money came from, but about what it says about how easily money can reach political parties without [them] doing proper checks on on its origins."

[Tripps]

The Sussex's latest ordeal at the hands of the media is interesting. Seems they stopped at a NYPD Precinct Station three times during the course of the hectic, and potentially catastrophic pursuit. Would have made a great episode of Barney Miller.

Reminds me of the Bernard Manning gag, about a brewery worker who drowned in a vat of best bitter.

It took two hours

► Show Spoiler

- but he had to get out for a pee twice.

[plaques]

The Conservatives lost control of Pendle with Labour taking one seat off them, and Lib Dems gaining two seats.

Under the partnership deal Labour councillor Asjad Mahmood will become leader and his Lib Dem counterpart councillor David Whipp his deputy.

[Stanley]

Oh Dear.... I assume that for official duties he will have to wear a conventional suit. Question is will he be recognised?

[Stanley]

I have just heard someone say that AI is a good thing because we will work less for more money and have more leisure. That's exactly what they told us about automation in the 1950s. Will it be true this time? I'll forecast no.

[Tripps]

Question is will he be recognised?

He'll be the one that's talking. . . .

[Stanley]

[plaques]

Scrapping retained EU red tape on wine to unlock £180 million Wine
At first sight scrapping the EU laws looks like a Brexit advantage. Apparently there are two classes of 'Home Grown' wine. English wine with vines grown in England and processed in England. These tend to be a top end quality wines. British wine, made in England from imported grape. Generally at the 'Plonk' end of the market. Although removing the rules 'COULD reduce the cost per bottle the quality may be compromised. English growers will not see much of the advantages and could see the competition from 'plonk' swamping their business. They have yet to decide which rules to remove but I doubt if OG wine drinkers will be consulted.

[Stanley]

Reported this morning.... British wane growers have welcomed the new legislation because for the first time they can now label their wine stating where the grapes were grown and not simply where it was bottled. Previously this was not the case and many people bought 'British Wine' without realising that the grapes or grape juice were imported in bulk.

[Tripps]

The magic phrase was "wine from fresh grapes". Thank you HMRC.

Not to be confused with for example QC "sherry" - which I learn can no longer described as "sherry".

[Big Kev]

Jaguar Land Rover (Tata) have chosen Bridgewater, for a new EV battery factory, over Spain. Someone loves us
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65698529

[Stanley]

I see that "sources familiar with the matter said a deal has not yet been signed but engagement had taken a step forward, with negotiations moving on to the drafting of an agreement."
I suppose the negotiations will largely depend on how big a subsidy we pay for the privilege.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the subject of open gas flames inside the house.
The government is being urged to protect people from gas cookers as they pose health and environmental risks. Gas cookers produce emissions which contribute to global warming and have been linked to respiratory problems and cardiovascular disease. The charity Global Action Plan is calling on the government to help the UK transition to cleaner alternatives. More than 36 million people in the UK cook with gas appliances and may be exposed to levels of indoor air pollution that would violate UK outdoor air pollution regulations, according to the Collaborative Labelling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP). CLASP estimates that indoor air pollution from gas cooking costs the UK around £1.4bn annually in healthcare costs, including lower life expectancy, illnesses, greater healthcare expenditure, and lower productivity. Cooking with gas stoves produces nitrogen oxides which have been linked to respiratory problems and cardiovascular disease. Evidence suggests that even when gas stoves are off they leak methane, and when on, produce carbon dioxide gas and nitrogen oxides. A study found that children in homes with gas stoves, rather than electric, were 42% more likely to have asthma.
I am so pleased to see this report. I have been banging on for years about the dangers of open gas flames in houses and have never seen any recognition of the danger. I have only one question, why has it taken so long? Could it be vested interests?

[Stanley]

See THIS for evidence that the Post Office Horizon scandal gets even worse.
The Post Office has apologised for using racist terms to describe postmasters wrongly investigated as part of the Horizon IT scandal. An internal document shows fraud investigators were asked to group suspects based on racial features. More than 700 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for false accounting based on information from a flawed system. The scandal has been described as "the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history". The guidance, which was reportedly published between 2008 and 2011, required investigators to give sub-postmasters under suspicion a number, according to their racial background. The numbered categories on the document include 'Chinese/Japanese types', 'Dark Skinned European Types' and 'Negroid Types' - an archaic and offensive term from the colonial era of the 1800s that refers to people of African descent.
The Post office say of course that this is a historic document and they are not racist but as far as I can remember, these terms were just as offensive in 2008 as they are now.