Seen in the News

[plaques]

Jeremy Hunt to ask UK regulators to investigate firms exploiting price rises Inflation.

The Bank of England has suggested that retailers, supermarkets, are taking advantage of the supply situation ;ie, a supply shortage means more people chasing fewer goods. It may come as a bit of a surprise to the BofE that retailers are in the business to make a profit. The bigger the profit the better their share holders like it.
Most shoppers will have seen the 'Aldi price match displayed at Sainsbury's. What's this all about? Aldi can see this advert and put their prices up. Sainsbury's will respond by putting their prices up. An upward spiral of prices where the face value of this brain washing is that they are attempting to lower them. The supermarket will run rings round any price commission.
This bit of Jeremy Hunt nonsense is to make it look like the government cares. Total humbug.

[Tripps]

Put me down as confused. Why does any God need sacrifices?

I'm not confused in the slightest.

On a similar theme if you're interested google 'Dussheera' . See how the Nepali Ghurkas handle it all.

Last week it was revealed that many are now joining the Russian Army - due to the Indian Army changing their requirements . Little coverage in the British media. They have been promised Russian citizenship after one year. Wagner Group

Events seem to have overtaken the situation - not too good to be a Wagnerian now. What happens to them now?

[Stanley]

Another example of how hard it is for poor people to survive in this world David. These are classic 'economic migrants' doing their best for their families and in their tradition this has always been military service. Poor buggers!
(And we complain about our relatively comfortable lives...... )
I see George Eustise has said that not using migration as labour in the workforce is exacerbating inflation. Wonderful how Tory ministers start to talk sense after they leave office.....
Later..... we have news that if you are relying on the BBC for your weather forecasts you are looking at erroneous temperature figures for the next week. (LINK)

[Big Kev]

Later..... we have news that if you are relying on the BBC for your weather forecasts you are looking at erroneous temperature figures for the next week. (LINK)

The BBC should have stuck with the Met Office as their forecast provider.

[Tizer]

More attention needs to be given to this problem. This is a useful update by Katya Adler...
`Far-right parties on the rise across Europe' LINK

On a different topic...
I find myself surprised to be in agreement with the US Republican Party on an issue. It's the teaching of gender identity in schools. The Republicans are fighting against campaigners who want young children to be told they can change their sex and/or identity and should explore their feelings and whether they want to change. Parents are up in arms about it and are going to vote Republican because they feel the Democrats are endangering their kids.

It has relevance to the Katya Adler article because it's another reason the right wing parties are gaining ground.

[Tripps]

This is quite shocking Ilke Homes

We hear from time to time about revolutionary new methods of house building which will change everything - then often little else.

Terrible news for the more than a thousand employees.

Not unexpected though "the company has been offered to potential buyers for bids over £1"

[Stanley]

I tend to agree Peter about 'gender teaching'. We have, on the whole, made a pretty good job of ruining childhood already without capping it all off by inserting this useless information in the curriculum.
David. How can a firm like that with a big order book be forced out of business simply by planning issues? I don't understand housing these days.....

[Tizer]

How can a firm like that with a big order book be forced out of business simply by planning issues? I don't understand housing these days.....

It all boils down to phosphate levels in rivers. The planners now have to check that building projects won't push phosphate levels above a certain level which is set to protect the wildlife in local rivers and streams. The developers are in a cleft stick because farmers are allowing so much phosphate run off that almost any extra from a development site will break the limit. In some cases the limit is already exceeded which makes a mockery of the regulations.

[Tripps]

This won't go down well -- 88% of staff taking part thought it was a good thing, and the Chief Executive's PhD thesis might be 'down the Swanee' .


"A Cambridgeshire council leader has said she has been 'surprised' after a Government minister demanded the authority stop its four-day working week experiment. South Cambridgeshire District Council is due to run the experimental work pattern until March 2024.

However, Lee Rowley, Minister for Local Government, has written to South Cambridgeshire District Council calling on it to stop the trial. Posting his letter online, he said: "Post-pandemic, local government's relentless focus must be on cutting backlogs, answering queries & improving efficiency Paying staff to only work four days is unlikely to achieve those aims I've now formally asked South Cambridgeshire to withdraw their '4-day week' experiment" "

[Stanley]

Bit rich when you consider that most MPs only do a four day week. Perhaps we ought to ask them all to clock in at 9AM on Monday and stay in post until 5PM on Friday. Why do politicians have to attempt to micro-manage everything? It never works!

[plaques]

Conservative MPs climbing on the populist band wagon to cut net migration....Migration

The MPs from the 2017 and 2019 intake, who call themselves the New Conservatives, have issued a 12-point plan to cut net migration to Britain from 606,000 to 240,000 before the end of 2024.

The blame game starts again. The Red Wall areas who voted Conservative on the premise that things couldn't get worse have possibly realised their mistake. Another xenophobic attack which will pull our economy down even further.

[Tripps]

Shocking news - and if confirmed,what implications are there for the future. Heartbreaking pictures of the family elsewhere. .

Kneejerk reaction thinks these things should be kept out of dwellings, and cars being charged should be in the open.
Cause of fatal fire

[Stanley]

I agree Ken. The 'New Conservatives' are just another claque of rabid right wingers desperately trying to make themselves electable to other rabid right wingers. Why do they all remind me of Oswald Mosley?
Thanks for that heads up David. M&S have just bought two. I have alerted them to the danger.

[Tizer]

`‘Double agents’: fossil-fuel lobbyists work for US groups trying to fight climate crisis: Exclusive: new database shows 1,500 US lobbyists working for fossil-fuel firms while representing universities and green groups' LINK
`More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal. Lobbyists for oil, gas and coal interests are also employed by a vast sweep of institutions, ranging from the city governments of Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia; tech giants such as Apple and Google; more than 150 universities; some of the country’s leading environmental groups – and even ski resorts seeing their snow melted by global heating....

`The breadth of fossil-fuel lobbyists’ work for other clients is captured in a new database of their lobbying interests which was published online on Wednesday. It shows the reach of state-level fossil-fuel lobbyists into almost every aspect of American life, spanning local governments, large corporations, cultural institutions such as museums and film festivals, and advocacy groups, grouping together clients with starkly contradictory aims.'

[Tripps]

Someone pulled the plug out

Or put more officiously - as I have long suspected - there is a plug just like in the bath.

"On investigation, Canal and River Trust engineers discovered that a 'let-off valve' downstream of Holme Lock, Gargrave had been leaking. The valve is a drain a the bottom of the canal sealed with a wooden board and a chain, that can be opened if the canal needs to be drained. "

[Stanley]

Funnily enough I think I knew that. I used to pick Priestholme milk up next to the canal maintenance yard.



An ice breaker on that stretch of canal......

[Tizer]

`Luxury cruise liner’s launch delayed as dozens of ships face potential safety hazard: Faulty fire-resistant panels recalled on MSC’s newest ship about to set sail' FT
`The launch of the world’s newest luxury cruise liner has been delayed because of faulty fire-resistant panels, sending shockwaves across the shipbuilding industry after it emerged dozens of other ships at sea were also affected. Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri was first informed at the end of May that a supplier had lost its safety certification for one type of panel used to equip Explora I, a 248-metre-long vessel to be delivered to Swiss cruise operator MSC, according to people with knowledge of the communication...

`Helsinki-based Paroc, the supplier, subsequently informed Fincantieri that a second type of panel had lost its certification, said the people, who declined to be identified because of potential liabilities. This week the panels started being recalled by their local distributor, prompting MSC and Fincantieri to cancel the boat’s launch at a day’s notice. Paroc has identified 45 boats in operation with the faulty panels, including other types of ships run by other companies, the people said. Globally, there are fewer than 300 cruise ships in operation, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry body which represents 95 per cent of the world’s ocean-going cruise capacity.'

[Stanley]

Can't you just imagine the lawyers licking their chops at the prospect of law suits galore!
There will be anxious people at whoever was the certifying authority because they must have got it wrong in the first place.

[Tizer]

Article in todays' Sunday Times that should interest Tripps...
`Cambridge to become Europe’s Silicon Valley — with 250,000 extra homes'
`Turning city into a tech leader, creating a planning ‘hit squad’ and rewriting eco rules are among schemes to boost building. Michael Gove is drawing up proposals to turn Cambridge into Britain’s Silicon Valley, with as many as 250,000 new homes built over the next two decades and the prospect of billions of pounds of investment. The plan, drawn up in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in recent months, forms part of a blueprint to fix England’s housing crisis and unleash growth in the life sciences and technology sectors. It is also seen as a way of boosting the so-called golden triangle between London, Oxford and Cambridge. The project, which has been kept tightly guarded, is being referred to as “Cambridge 2040”. While the scheme is still at “concept” stage, sources said the proposals envisage a huge expansion of the city...'. [Paywall blocks the rest]

[Tripps]

I was working on the basis that it already was our Silicon Valley. Valley is a bit of a stretch though, here in E. Anglia.

Yes - but first reaction to something which has the date 2040 in its title and is 'still at the concept stage 'is of limited concern.

Seen it all before or similar. Here's a flavour Cambridge Horizonsand you will spot why I take an interest.

[Tizer]

Are you Grand Master of Freemasons too?

[Tripps]

'fraid not - hope you're not too disappointed in me . . . .

[Stanley]

Doc and I were convinced you were the David Trippier. Does this mean we were right?

[Tripps]

I find there are currently about eight others with a claim to the title, but yes of course - I am the David

I am not however this contender for the honour. He has far too much energy to be confused with me, and I don't do 'dressing up'. . . . .

sir david.jpg

[Tizer]

That's the man - did he have something to do with Rochdale or Rossendale?