WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

Exactly Kev. I like it.

[Stanley]

The school teacher and the 15 year old pupil. I have heard no mention of what I always thought was a fundamental principle of the pupil-teacher relationship, 'in loco parentis'. Has this concept faded away?

[Nolic]

Comrade, no , its still there. More of a worry is that the girls friends seemed to have rung alarm bells with staff at the school some time ago and little seems to have happened. My guess is that no-one at the school will be held to account........now if the man were a social worker...?? Nolic

[Tizer]

Down here in the wild west the badger cull is under way. The BBC site now has a question & answer page on the topic which has useful information: LINK

The data from the previous big trial (in which 11,000 badgers were killed) suggests that "if certain conditions are met, culling could reduce disease incidence by 16% over nine years". It worries me that this means culling over 9 years could still leave 84% of the disease incidence in cattle. Not only does this show culling is not very effective, it means a large pool of TB is still present in cattle and this can be transferred from the diseased cattle to healthy cattle and to remaining badgers and other animals, both locally or elsewhere if the cattle are moved about the country. And there would still be a reservoir of bovine TB in other animals such as deer.

[Stanley]

Comrade, I see from the news that the school is no stranger to problems like this. There is something very wrong here and it's a tragedy for all involved.
I noted the message in a bottle thrown off the pier that reached Oz in five months. Amazing!
I also noted that Mr Cameron didn't know the meaning of 'Magna Carta'. Now there's a surprise!

Here is a copy of a letter I am sending this morning to the Co-op CEO:
Peter Vincent Marks
CEO . Cooperative Group
New Century House
Manchester
M60 4ES


Dear Mr Marks,

I apologise for troubling you again with what should be a simple matter but enclosed is a letter I sent to the head of your food division on 11th of September. I have received no reply and there is still no Condor Green pipe tobacco in the Barnoldswick store.

I'm sure you will agree that whilst trivial this flags up a core issue in your business, the way a customer's needs are treated. What conclusions do I draw from this saga? Is Mr Murrells ignoring me or is he simply incompetent? On 13th of August he informed me that the Condor tobacco would be in store 'in a couple of weeks'. Could it be that an algorithm in your stock analysis software is running the company rather than the managers? My first letter on this matter was sent on the 4th of August.....

I am not happy. Can I expect a resolution, or even the courtesy of a reply?

[EileenDavid]

Stanley's letter. It has inspired me to write to Brittany Ferries on their incompetence's. They hold the monopoly on this area and as such have carte blanche to charge what they want and the services they offer. We rent out in the school holidays and our prices haven't gone up for 4 years but the ferry price puts of potential customers. Eileen

[Nolic]

Some semblance of the truth is now coming out about the Rochdale scandal. Whilst everyone has been jumping on the bandwagon and blaming children's homes for failing to protect young people in their care it now appears that since 2004 a significant number of referrals were made by health and care professionals to the police and local authority expressing concerns about particular girls being exploited and little was done. I now suspect that an over riding concern from the authorities not to appear to be targeting particular groups may well be the reason that little action was taken. Nolic

[Tizer]

Nolic, you might have seen my continuing saga of how my elderly and infirm in-laws are being dealt with in the hands of the hospital and the community health & care professionals (see Family Matters topic). Most of the individuals working in these services are good at their job and working hard but they are being badly let down by lack of control, coordination, logistics and management. For example, after mum's 3-week time in hospital it seems the community carers were not told by the medics how she would need to cared for when she went home. They certainly didn't tell the family members. Might it be the same problems exist in the health & care of children? They certainly apply in many organisations now. (Including the Co-op as we see from Stanley's experience, and M&S from Mrs Tiz's experience. M&S let us down yet again a week ago when their courier didn't ring the bell but `delivered' a parcel by leaving it outside our garage door. The garage is behind the house on a country lane and it was only by luck that we found it before nightfall.)

[Pluggy]

This :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19725840


Got to be one of the luckiest people alive......

[Bodger]

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.
No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa , raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome ."


Sir Winston Churchill; (Source: The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages > 248-50 London 1899 !!! ) Churchill saw it coming ...

[Nolic]

Tiz, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I just read the following article at lunchtime which seems to sum up the " establishment" view of .....what do you know, you only use the service, I'm a professional.... but sometimes they get there cumuppence. Nolic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-n ... protection

[Whyperion]

Just done the Telegraphs on line British quiz , not certain about some of the answers . I didn't realise that dogs in public places had to have a collar on with name and address of owner. I got confused on the countries making up Great Britain ( should have read the question ! ) , and didnt have a clue on the proportion of Welsh voting for conservatives, the question on How many people does David Cameron represent I thought confusing , can the role of PM be said to represent the population of the UK in any official capacity ? ( as worded surely its the population of his Oxfordshire constituency ? )

[Sunray10]

Our prime minister David Cameran asked on the US David Letterman programme about who wrote Rule Brittania, and what is Magna Carta and where was it signed etc. But, just how many people do really know the answers. I'm not sure I know !!

[Stanley]

Pluggy, he even took his blanket with him.
Ray, I doubt if anyone would get all the questions right, the Letterman show is famous for embarrassing guests like this. Question is why did he go on it? Massaging his ego?
Letter to Co-op sent 1st class yesterday..... See Banks are out to get you for HSBC's latest helpful adjustment to their rules of engagement and Computer topic for Orange's unhelpful reply.

[Wendyf]

Switched the radio on this morning and heard about the plane crash in Kathmandu. My neighbour's daughter set out on an Everest base camp trek last Saturday and my brother & niece started out on Tuesday. Common sense told me they would all be trekking by now but I was still worried. Just had a text from Steve to say they are OK. Can't help but think of other families waking up to the news who wont get that reassuring message.

[Tardis]

Actually it was Wednesday. I went to Colne for a meeting with the Low Carbon project.

Whilst waiting to go in I browsed some of the shops, and in one found a nice lady beaming at me who then engaged me in conversation. She seemed to recognise me and I hope that I was very polite

Could I remember her name? Nope

2 hours later I remembered who it was, Carol from the Fountain Inn. So out of context experience it had thrown me

[Tizer]

I've just read these words in a US Department of Agriculture press release:
"Government mandates call for production of up to 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022."
Just imagine how much land in America will be needed to grow the crops to make the biofuel! Some of it will be land unsuited to growing food crops but I'll bet a lot will be switched from food to biofuel because farmers will get subsidies and perhaps better prices.

[Thomo]

Gotcha!! The missing schoolgirl and her "teacher" have been picked up by the Police in France whilst apparently seeking employment, its nice to know the sometimes the media is useful.

[Sunray10]

Magna Carta - The Great Charta. I believe this was signed at Runnymead in Kent, or an island on the Thames, perhaps?

[Stanley]

The amount of time and effort Ian is putting into banning the forum spam attackers who are swamping the site at the moment. He's invisible while he is doing this to everyone but the moderators. I just thought that all the other members should know how hard he is working for you.

[PanBiker]

Nice of you to say that Stanley but it's not all down to me, Wendy has been sweeping the dross up as well this morning. With a bit of luck between us all we'll keep the Oriental hordes at bay! China certainly seems to be in the ascendency.

[Tizer]

Well done Ian and Wendy! Thanks for all the hard work - it's tedious and frustrating to have to keep catching the spammers and banning them.

[Wendyf]

I only catch the occasional one if they post in the forums.

[PanBiker]

And I try to nail them before they get a chance to.

[Stanley]

Sorry Wendy, I didn't know you had been catching them as well. The site is a bit like a swan, all serene on the surface but underwater the little fat legs are padding like hell!
How router dust gets everywhere!