Seen in the News

[Tripps]

It surprised me to learn that the price of a First Class postage stamp rises to £1.25 in October. Doesn't seem long since it went over £1.
I am beginning to supect that we don't even get a daily delivery now -though all the letters I don't really want, still arrive.

Paul Lewis of BBC R4 Money Box reports -

"Privatised Royal Mail missed its delivery targets in every UK postcode this summer with only 76% of first class delivered on time despite £1.10 cost of a stamp. Major shareholder Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský has had £100m in dividends since 2021 "

[PanBiker]

I am beginning to supect that we don't even get a daily delivery now -though all the letters I don't really want, still arrive.

Barlick sorting office staff and local posties are in short supply. Our deliveries are about a fortnight apart. I hope I get my scan appointment which will be over in Leeds in good time.

[Stanley]

And some of the staff that they have is so inexperienced as to be useless.
Can you remember being told that privatisation of these essential services would unlock efficiencies and economies? Nye Bevan was right, the commanding heights of the economy should always be under our control.

[Tripps]

He's made it to the BBC News. Scrubs up quite well th'owd lad.


Pickles Clock

[Big Kev]

He's made it to the BBC News. Scrubs up quite well th'owd lad.


Pickles Clock

[Stanley]

They said the Telly lot were coming but I never saw them. I was looking for a camera crew but it was just one man taking pics with a portable phone..... Things have gone down a bit at the Beeb!

[Stanley]

One for DaVIDI think.
See THIS BBC report of an outstanding loser.....
The aptly named Doom entered the history books by equalling the all-time record of a shortest-priced loser in Britain when she lost out at 1-25 in a match against Karmology at Ripon. Doom was viewed as a certainty having gone within a head of future Oaks winner Soul Sister in a Doncaster maiden last October, while her comeback second at Newmarket last month was similarly packed full of promise. But James Wigan's exceptionally bred daughter of Dubawi, who is out of Breeders' Cup-winning mare Dank, was subject to a major upset by an unraced runner, who was only entered by trainer Karl Burke because the track was close to home. The William Haggas-trained Doom set out to make all under Tom Marquand and looked poised to win easily before Pierre-Louis Jamin reached for the whip and pushed along the 9-1 outsider Karmology. The newcomer rallied in the final half furlong to sprint ahead approaching the line. Doom's losing SP of 1-25 was the same as Royal Forest at Ascot in 1948. Doom traded at a low of 1.01 on the Betfair Exchange, with £11,000 matched at the basement odds, while £407,000 of the £451,000 matched on the race was on the favourite. Winning trainer Burke told Sky Sports Racing: "She's a nice filly but she's a work in progress – very much one for next year and over a longer trip. "I really only entered her because it was on our doorstep and because there weren't many entries. I said to David and Yvonne [Blunt, owner-breeders] that there was no real fillies' races over a mile and a quarter we could go for until the end of the month and into October. We thought we'd give her a nice education. "There were nine entries and I was following it on Sunday morning. I saw William had declared and I assumed all the other Newmarket trainers must've just had a late night. I couldn't believe there were only two runners but it worked out well."

[Tizer]

I suggested this on OG eleven months ago. I hope the next step will be for the UN to do the same...
`Wagner to be declared a terrorist organisation by UK' LINK
`Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, is set to be proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK government - meaning it will be illegal to be a member or support the organisation. A draft order to be laid in Parliament will allow its assets to be categorised as terrorist property and seized...'.

[Stanley]

It seems to be a no-brainer doesn't it Peter.....

[Stanley]

Have a look at this LINK and then ask yourself, do we really need a news program to advise us on how often to wash our towels? Much of what is said seems to me to be bleeding obvious!
I note there was no mention of kitchen towels and dish cloths. Mine get washed every two days at most and sometimes after one day.
I note that the 'expert' believes that if you live alone you are less likely to be attacked by infections..... Perhaps that explains why I am so free from infections.....
(Another reason why being anti-social is good for you!)

[Tizer]

The link doesn't work Stanley.

[Tripps]

This chap's theology seems a little confused - but "When in Rome do as the Romans do seems to apply. Or perhaps he has had an each way bet?

From King Charles' Coronation

Remember the rules -
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
— Exodus 20:4–6 (KJV)


Now Rishi the devout Hindu

[Stanley]

Try THIS Peter...
David, I think I prefer Alastair Campbell's response when asked to comment on Blair and Religion. "We don't do religion".
I seem to remember proscription of overly public prayer as practised by the Pharisees in my Bible.....
I would prefer it if they kept details of their religious practices to themselves and think it would be best if we separated Church and State.

[Tizer]

Have a look at this LINK and then ask yourself, do we really need a news program to advise us on how often to wash our towels? Much of what is said seems to me to be bleeding obvious!

It's not obvious to the `44% who said they would wash their towels after three months or more'. They must be smelly by then! We wash towels every week.

[Tripps]

I think today 11th September is the anniversary of what came to be known as 9/11. I can see no reference at all to it in the news which is fed to me. The number of dead in the recent Moroccan earthquake will probably exceed the number killed there, and be forgotten a lot sooner. How quickly the Turkey / Syria earthquake only last February has neen forgotten. The confirmed death toll stood at 59,259: 50,783 in Turkey and 8,476 in Syria.

The Times has published the name ( and a clear photograph of his face) of the chap working in Parliament arrested as a Chinese Spy. Not at all the type you might expect. Seems very 'establishment' I'd say. I see nothing elsewhere on the subject. Even Guido Fawkes is not on the case - very surprising.
The Times seem to have an exclusive, and of course it's behind a paywall. The arrest was made in March - so well concealed up to now.

We will see what develops - or doesn't

PS -It's in the Daily Mail now Trigger warning you are entering Mail land

PS Later that same day. . . Fawkes is on the case. It's warming up nicely - something's afoot.

"Guido didn’t name Chris Cash last night because we assumed there must be a good reason papers were holding back. In retrospect we made a mistake."

[Tizer]

This happened a few miles from us yesterday, near the Norton Fitzwarren Royal Marines base...
`Military truck in Taunton rams through police road block' BBC video
A privately owned military truck has been driven through a police road block, damaging nine vehicles. Officers attended an address in Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton, at 16:40 BST on Sunday. When they arrived, a 41-year-old man left the address in the military truck, damaging four police cars and five privately owned vehicles. No one was injured in the incident. The man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of police officers and multiple counts of suspicion of criminal damage, Avon and Somerset Police said.

I'm glad they caught him or he might have gone on to kill people.

[Stanley]

I had to smile at "suspicion of criminal damage". Having watched the video I would have thought it was a fairly open and shut case Peter!
David, It's quite obvious he can't be a spy, he is a 'cricket star'!
The target readership of the Daily Mail must have very simplistic views.
On reflection, that's very worrying because they are perhaps our most successful newspaper.......

[Tizer]

More dam trouble...
`Thousands feared dead as flooding sweeps Libya' LINK
Note these words: ...Two dams in Derna - home to approximately 100,000 people - reportedly collapsed, submerging much of the area and drowning some residents. Authorities consequently declared the port a "disaster city". Eastern Prime Minister Osama Hamad told a Libyan television channel: "The missing are in the thousands, and the dead exceed 2,000... entire neighbourhoods in Derna have disappeared, along with their residents ... swept away by water."...

[Stanley]

Noted Peter. Once more your warnings have proved to be prescient.

[Tizer]

We seem to be turning into a nation of idiots...
`Selfie takers forced pony off cliff in Gower, farmer says' LINK

[Stanley]

A terribly upsetting story Peter. These people are totally divorced from animals and country matters and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near them. I was regularly subjected to abuse from people who thought that cattle were forced into cattle wagons and were terrified while in there. The opposite was true about good cattle transport of course, they loved the ride if the conditions were right. It would be these people who were taking the selfies and causing the foal's death while protesting their love for animals. They need educating!

[Stanley]

The death toll from the dam collapse in Libya is being estimated at 20,000 this morning.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC rport for shocking news about the death of the child Sara Sharif...
The father, stepmother and uncle of Sara Sharif have been charged with the murder of the 10-year-old girl, Surrey Police has said. Urfan Sharif, 41, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and Urfan's brother, Faisal Malik, 28, all of Hammond Road, Woking, have been charged. They have also each been charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. Sara's body was found at her home on 10 August. A post-mortem examination found she had sustained "multiple and extensive injuries". The three adults left the UK for Pakistan on 9 August.

[Stanley]

I'm listening to reports of Penny Mordaunt saying that doing what Wales is doing today, converting all 30mph speed limits to 20mph is crazy, another Tory Cabinet Minister says it is 'insane'.
This is all balls of course, the sensible thing to do is make all 30 speed limits 20 all over the country. I'm listening to one advocate of 30mph saying that taking it down to 20 will trash the relationship between the motorist and the state.... Really......

[plaques]

I think Pendle have got their speed limits about right. Most 'A' roads and 'B' roads are 30 mph with nearly all the side streets 20 mph. Admittedly there are a number of nutters who ignore these limits and in some cases adjustments down to 20 may be needed.

With the big hills we have locally I wouldn't fancy riding my breaks down two or three miles of a hill.