Seen in the News

[Tripps]

One person has died and 21 people were wounded in a shooting in Missouri

The news I saw of that event, said that this was the 48th mass shooting in USA this year and that over 4,000 people had died in the same period due to other (ordinary) shootings, and it's only mid February. That seems a lot - can those numbers be true?

Seems so - Google reveals that there are over 600 mass shootings each year and they only count those in which four or more people die. Still - it's the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave - so that's all OK then.

[PanBiker]

They need to do away with the second amendment, easier said than done. However why do they maintain the right to form multiple paramilitary organisations, (militia) to protect the country. They have an organised Army, Navy and Air Force to see to that, with an unlimited budget to defend the country or indeed to engage in wars at home or abroad, wherever they may occur. Whether they are fully successful in these enterprises is open to debate.

Having said that I think we (the British) were the last to invade them and that was a very long time ago. The attack on Pearl Harbour cannot be classed as an invasion, just a very strategic targeting by an aggressive foe. This first bit of Madison's ammendment props up the second bit, the non impedance of any individual to carry arms. It's totally useless now two hundred and odd years later.

Same two hundred and odd years later it would appear that the relatively new Nation has not yet become mature enough to sort themselves out. We managed perfectly well over on this side of the pond to develop laws which the vast majority of the population adhere to. We have been at the game a lot longer than the yanks though.

[Stanley]

THIS is today's UK news. Labour has won the seat at Kingswood, the Wellingborough count is still ongoing.
Labour overturns 11,220 Conservative majority to win Chris Skidmore’s former seat in Kingswood Keir Starmer hails the "fantastic" result, saying "people are ready to put their trust in a Labour government" he vote in Kingswood was prompted by Skidmore's resignation after he stood down over the government's energy plans. Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg blames a low turnout and insists Rishi Sunak's leadership is "solid" and "by-elections don't change that"
Votes are still being counted in the Wellingborough by-election, a Conservative-held seat, with results expected in the coming hours The Wellingborough by-election was called after Peter Bone's suspension from the House of Commons Turnout in Kingswood was 37.1%, and 38.1% in Wellingborough. By-election turnouts tend to be lower than general elections
Not a good day for Sunak. Yesterday we learned that his pledges were suffering again as the latest Treasury figures show that we are technically in recession. At the very best, the economy is flat-lining.

[Tizer]

Saturday's Times had a two-page interview article with Ian Henderson, the forensic accountant, who with his colleague Ron Warmington, work under the `Second Sight' moniker and were sent in to investigate the Post Office. Impressive, he was an army officer for 9 years and dealt with bomb disposal then trained as a forensic accountant. Apparently one of the Post Office lawyers threatened to bankrupt him if he went public.

[Stanley]

And if you believe Staunton (And I do!)threats are still being used to manage the situation.

See THIS breaking news this morning.
David Cameron's government knew the Post Office had ditched a secret investigation that might have helped wrongly accused postmasters prove their innocence, the BBC can reveal. The 2016 investigation trawled 17 years of records to find out how often, and why, cash accounts on the Horizon IT system had been tampered with remotely. Ministers were told an investigation was happening. But after postmasters began legal action, it was suddenly stopped. The secret investigation adds to evidence that the Post Office knew Horizon's creator, Fujitsu, could remotely fiddle with sub-postmaster's cash accounts - even as it argued in court, two years later, that it was impossible. The revelations have prompted an accusation that the Post Office may have broken the law - and the government did nothing to prevent it. Paul Marshall, a barrister who represented some sub-postmasters, said: "On the face of it, it discloses a conspiracy by the Post Office to pervert the course of justice."

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report.
Home Secretary James Cleverly has sacked the government's immigration watchdog after details of critical reports appeared in newspapers. The Home Office said David Neal had "breached the terms" of his role and leaked confidential information. Mr Neal was quoted in The Daily Mail about security checks on private jets. Meanwhile, sources close to him said he was responsible for details of another unpublished report about visas for care workers appearing in The Times.
Shades of Staunton and the Post Office. It is a crime to speak the truth in this government.
I see there are reports of up to a hundred Tory MPs considering resigning their seats rather than face electoral disaster in the next election. With behaviour like this becoming common, is it any wonder?

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report and then ask yourself what is the world coming to?
Australian bishop Christopher Saunders has been charged with rape and a string of historical sex offences - some against children. The 74-year-old was arrested in Broome on Wednesday, after parallel investigations ordered by Western Australian police and the Pope. Mr Saunders, who has denied allegations in the past, was refused bail and will appear in court on Thursday. He is one of the most senior Catholic clerics to face charges of this nature. Mr Saunders is accused of two counts of rape, 14 counts of unlawful and indecent assault, and three counts of indecently dealing with a child as a person in authority. The alleged offending occurred in the remote Western Australian towns of Broome, Kununurra and the Aboriginal community of Kalumburu between 2008 and 2014.
Or is it perhaps that I am failing to keep abreast of the modern world and shouldn't be surprised when I see reports like this?

[Wendyf]

He has been investigated and charged, in the past it would have been hidden.

[Cathy]

We saw the Bishop Christopher Saunders being arrested, on the news. Weedy little man.
Hopefully Pope Francis will be able to weed-out and uncover more offenders.

[Stanley]

There will be many of them.......

[Tripps]

I heard in the news during the night that there has been a bad fire in residential flats in Valencia Spain, with much loss of life. I'm fairly sure I heard the report say that the local Fire Brigade had been unable to put out the fire. Does that mean the rechargeable batteries were involved again?

Any bad news seems to activate the spin doctors, and it will be interesting to see how this develops, and whether that aspect will be developed. We hear nothing of the Luton car park fire any more, with over a thousand vehicles destroyed, but fortunately no casualties.

PS - Now having seen pictures, I'm not surprised they could not put it out. No news yet of the cause, but the terribly quick spread seems to be a combination of the cladding and high winds.

[Tizer]

Polyurethane insulation, aluminium cladding, 14 storeys and the chimney effect. The whole of the two connected apartment blocks were an inferno within about 15 minutes according to residents who escaped.

[Stanley]

I heard the same report as Peter. Early days but it looks as though design and cladding were the reasons.
Makes you appreciate a stone terraced house!

[Tizer]

It's two years since Russia invaded Ukraine and there's plenty of media discussion of Putin's special operation war. None of it addresses this question: if Britain had stayed in the EU would Putin have invaded Ukraine? I ask this not because I think he is afraid of Britain but because he would have seen Brexit as an indication of the EU beginning to fall apart and the eastern members becoming more vulnerable. Also because the UK has been an important link between the EU and USA. From Putin's perspective, once Britain left the EU the Americans would be less likely to come to the aid of European countries and NATO would begin to collapse.

[Tripps]

Looks like it was "dose of salts" day in Rochdale last Thursday. You'd almost think there was an election pending.

Operation AVRO

There was a time when AVRO was an aircraft manufacturing company in Chadderton and elsewhere.

Interesting also to see such an active vibrant cultural life in the town. Rochdale Milaad Jaloos 2023


PS, Re the Valencia (Spain) fire above. The "design and cladding" caused the fire to spread rapidly, but they didn't start the fire. I doubt we will ever know what did.

[Stanley]

That's a very interesting point Peter and I can well imagine you're right.
Operation AVRO.... the point I take from that David is that the more heavily we invest in police presence and activity the more criminality we find and destroy. And they tell us that more police on the streets isn't the answer......
The message I get is that basic services are under-funded. Austerity has taken its toll.
See THIS Mirror report into a fire in Nanjing. It started on a floor where E-Bikes were stored.
Meanwhile, see THIS BBC report of of Lee Anderson having the Tory Party whip removed.
Former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson has been suspended from the party after "refusing to apologise" for comments aimed at Sadiq Khan. The Conservative Ashfield MP told GB News on Friday "Islamists" had "got control" of the mayor of London. Responding on Saturday, Mr Khan described the remarks as "pouring fuel on the fire of anti-Muslim hatred". Mr Anderson said his comments had put the chief whip and PM in a "difficult position". Losing the Conservative whip essentially expels Mr Anderson from his party in Parliament. Just over an hour after Mr Khan's criticism, a spokesperson for the Tory party's chief whip Simon Hart said: "Following his refusal to apologise for comments made yesterday, the chief whip has suspended the Conservative whip from Lee Anderson MP."

[Stanley]

I think THIS comes under the heading of shooting yourself in the foot.
Military officers and senior soldiers have said they will quit the Army in droves over new accommodation rules. Currently, military personnel are entitled to subsidised housing based on their rank, but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants to change the rules to focus on families' needs. The plan could mean many officers will lose entitlement to larger housing. It is feared the crisis in army recruitment and retention could get worse if the new plans are implemented. The BBC has obtained testimony from more than 20 officers and their partners - in a sign of growing protest over the new policy. One said: "Signed off before Christmas and changes to service family accommodation was one of the factors that influenced us as a childless couple". Dozens more said they were ready to "walk out the door". More than 300 officers took part in a survey on social media and 78% said they would be prepared to leave if their accommodation entitlement is reduced.
Brilliant.... first they bugger up recruiting by privatising it and now they antagonise their most valuable soldiers by a petty regulation change. What is the thinking (if any) behind this?

[Tizer]

I was going to post links to three news stories this morning which illustrate just what a mess this country is in but you saved me posting one of them - you've already posted it above, thanks. Here's the other two...

`Housebuilders face probe from competition watchdog' LINK 1
Some of the UK's biggest housebuilders are being investigated over whether they have been sharing information which could influence house prices. The Competition and Markets Authority has launched the probe after a year-long investigation into housebuilding in England, Wales and Scotland. It also said "significant intervention" in the market was needed to ensure enough homes were built to meet demand. The watchdog also raised concerns over the quality of new homes...

`Royal Mail: What’s gone wrong at the company?' LINK 2
...One former Royal Mail area manager, who left in 2022 and asked to speak anonymously, says he was so short-staffed that for weeks at a time he instructed postal staff to leave letters behind. "You knew that you were letting customers down and there was no hiding from it," he says. Those decisions were taken in consultation with his managers, he adds. He also says that senior management would have known that letters were being left behind while tracked items and some parcels went out because every delivery office in the country collects data daily on what is and isn't being delivered. He says that data was collated and sent up the management chain to the top of the company. It was "impossible" that the top of Royal Mail didn't know this was happening as "everyone all the way up the chain was reporting those failures, was saying this is what we're prioritising"...

[Stanley]

I heard both those reports Peter. The one about housebuilders sometimes colluding with other builders to artificially raise the price of houses wasn't really a surprise. I think we all suspected something was going on.
I heard the interview with the ex PO manager as well and what he said showed clearly that the senior management of the PO knew what was going wrong but did nothing. They were more interested in raising their bonuses.
Did you hear the mother telling the story about her child missing a life-changing operation because the appointment letter never arrived?
I seem to remember that ten years ago and more, I was bending the ear of anybody who would listen to me about the economic illiteracy of austerity and I forecast then that it would result in the breakdown of society. That's just what we are seeing now and it will get worse before it gets better.
See THIS BBC account of the report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which questions where Hunt will get funding for his tax cuts.
The government should not cut taxes in the upcoming Budget, unless it can spell out how it will afford them, a leading think tank has warned. The chancellor has hinted he would like to lower taxes in what could be the last Budget before a general election. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the case for tax cuts was "weak". The government said it would not comment on whether further cuts to tax would be "affordable in the Budget". But both Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak have made no secret of wanting to reduce the taxation burden on the general public. Last month Chancellor Hunt hinted that he was looking at trimming public spending as a way to deliver tax cuts.
The rumour is that Hunt is looking at further cuts in benefits to save money and finance cuts. How can anyone even think about this when the population is under so much pressure already?
Leading politicians seem to have forgotten that the reason they are in office is to protect the interests of the population at large, not just the pension funds of their mates!

[Tizer]

Did you hear the mother telling the story about her child missing a life-changing operation because the appointment letter never arrived?

Yes, and last year I didn't receive my promised copy of the consultant's conclusions from my chest X-rays. In the end my surgery had to send me a copy of their copy and they weren't surprised by my request for it.

[Tripps]

Military officers and senior soldiers have said they will quit the Army in droves over new accommodation rules.

Already referred to in Quote of the day.

"PS Apparently this is an actual quote from the 2i/c of the Army.
Britain’s second most senior general has said she wants to see less hierarchical behaviour and more “empowerment” in the Army. Lt Gen Dame Sharon Nesmith, the deputy chief of the general staff, said in an interview that “just because we have lots of rank structure, doesn’t mean to say that we have to behave in a hierarchical way”.

I'd guess this lady had a hand in it all - looks like she has proved yet again that "all plans collapse on first contact with the enemy" or as Mike Tyson once said "everybody's has a plan until they get punched in the face". She is probably a fan of Uncle Karl "to each according to his needs" ?

Ed note - that's too many quotes for one post . . . .

[Stanley]

I heard a report on the wireless yesterday that the MoD had done a reverse ferret on the matter of allocation of accommodation.
See THIS BBC report on the matter.
The Ministry of Defence says it is pausing its plans to change the allocation of military housing after strong criticism from Army families. Under the plan, serving personnel would have got subsidised housing based on their need, such as how many children they have, rather than their rank. But there had been significant opposition to the move from officers, with a number threatening to quit. The defence minister said the MoD U-turn came after listening to feedback. Andrew Murrison said elements of the New Accommodation Model, which is due to be launched in March, would be paused and a review would be conducted.
I heard one officer's wife saying that she thought that the main factor driving the new policy was cost cutting. That sounds about right!
Heading the news this morning is THIS report from the Post Office enquiry.
The Post Office has confirmed that its current boss, Nick Read, is under investigation, after its former chairman Henry Staunton shocked MPs by making the revelation. Mr Staunton was at a hearing to discuss compensation payments to sub-postmasters at the centre of the Horizon scandal. Alan Bates, who inspired an ITV drama on the issue, told MPs the government should "get on and pay people". The investigation is ongoing. The Post Office confirmed there were complaints against Mr Read and other staff.
I think I heard a report that Mr Bates had said that the PO is so thoroughly broken that it should be sold off for a Pound. I don't know what the market is like for outsize cans of worms but this certainly comes under that heading.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of a fire in Bury.
A woman was seriously injured in an explosion that saw homes and a primary school evacuated. The blast happened just before 11:00 GMT on Nelson Street in Bury, Greater Manchester. The injured woman, who is in her 70s, was taken to hospital. An eyewitness said the property had been badly damaged in the explosion, with clouds of smoke filling nearby streets. St Luke's Primary School, which has more than 480 pupils, had to call parents to take their children home early. Eleven homes were also evacuated, with emergency services planning to work "into the night to get residents back into their properties as soon as possible", a Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said. The condition of a house next door to the damaged terraced home is being investigated to "work out which are safe", the spokeswoman added. The cause of the blast has not yet been confirmed. Earlier, a spokesman for gas company Cadent said it was "too early to say" what caused the explosion. Staff from the firm were working to "make sure everything associated with gas on site is safe", he added.
Just as a matter of interest can anyone tell me why large organisations like NW Gas change their names so frequently?

[Tizer]

That reminds me of our plumber telling us about the increased danger to gas pipes caused by leaks in condenser pipes allowing the water (which contains nitric acid) to fall onto the gas pipe and corrode it.

[Big Kev]

Sounds like a good idea to me, Oswaldtwistle school teaching toddlers literacy skills. I would imagine the school has a nursery and are making use of the additional funding for early years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-68405301