That's what ten years of Tory government will do
A government that has invested more in the NHS over the decade than Labour promised to. (So had it been a Labour administration the situation would have been even worse)
The fact is that too many people make too many trivial demands on the NHS and that devalues the service for those that really need it.
Display MoreStar Wars fans will be disappointed to hear that the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off may arrive later than expected due to alleged conflicts with Disney+ hit, The Mandalorian.
According to reports, the upcoming series' scripts were a bit too similar to that of the space western show - which was created by Jon Favreau.
The insider added that two scripts had already been written and actors were starting to be screen tested alongside the star of the show, Ewan McGregor.
It's also been reported that the series will be downsized from six episodes to just four.
I guess the unexpected success of the Mandalorian has caught the producers on the hop.
Just a heads up for anybody who likes pies: Sainsbury's are knocking out Pukka pies at a quid a pop. All types until at least next Monday.
Isn't it frogs and hailstones next?
Darkness for three days. Then killing of the firstborn.
Display MoreA huge swarm of locusts have descended on East Africa in what has been called "the most serious outbreak of desert locusts in 25 years".
Incredible images show the plague of insects surging around the nation earlier this week as locals battled to fumigate after the phenomenon.
It comes after an "extremely dangerous increase" in locust swarm activity was reported by officials in Kenya this week.
Authorities confirmed the insects continue to pose an "unprecedented threat to food security" as the insects fly together by the millions — devouring crops in the process.
The locust swarms hang like shimmering dark clouds on the horizon in some places.
One swarm measured a staggering 37 miles long by 25 miles wide in the north-east of the country, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said in a statement.
Full story and pictures on link above.
Very true for companies who trade in physical goods like the Amazon's of this world but there are also many that just move data about.
Failure to pay would result in web access being blocked.
Over three years ago there was a court injunction on all UK ISP's to ban access to The Pirate Bay. It still only takes a couple of seconds to get a proxy or VPN to access it or any of the other torrent indexers. Bans are not practical.
I'm as bad as anybody in pulling the thread off topic but please return to it.
Dan Wootton's piece in the Sun today hits the nail on the head:
Display MoreThe bloated BBC is finally sipping expensive champagne in a last-chance saloon surrounded by Corbynista socialists.
Boris Johnson stands within touching distance of enacting Tory revenge on the Blatantly Biased Corporation, which his genius sidekick Dominic Cummings has been quietly plotting for 16 years.
But an early departure this week by Director-General Tony Hall gives the Beeb one final chance to hire a boss who accepts it must change.
A boss who believes its news coverage must represent more than the London remoaning media elite.
A boss who knows it is only fair for the BBC to fund the licence fee for those over 75.
A boss who accepts it’s wrong to send people to jail for failing to pay the BBC’s poll tax.
Worth reading for his comments on Monday's Newsnight.
He's not against the BBC per se but it needs to refocus and downsize to be more relevent.
QuoteDisplay MoreNo one is proposing for a single second the BBC be axed. But the poll tax that funds it should be.
Its websites that write clickbait about TV shows like Love Island — well covered by other online outlets — should be stopped too. Not to mention its recent push into the already saturated podcast market.
The BBC’s job is not to be a monolith, shutting out commercial organisations and dominating the entertainment and news industries.
That’s what makes yesterday’s decision to axe Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC2 programme ridiculous.
Her award-winning morning show is one of the only news programmes on the corporation to properly cover the working class.
Warning! Graphic video and pictures
Display MoreAs the deadly coronavirus grips Wuhan footage has emerged of Chinese residents collapsing in streets and hospital across the city.
Wuhan, where cases of coronavirus were first reported before the outbreak spread across the world, has been dubbed “zombieland” by desperate locals.
Harrowing pictures on social media show people collapsed on the street and in hospital waiting rooms amid the epidemic which has claimed the lives of at least 26 people.
In one disturbing clip, a man can be seen lying unresponsive on the ground while medics wearing hazmat suits and gas masks attempt to help him.
According to reports, the victim – who was wearing a protective mask - was waiting in line for paperwork when he lost consciousness and collapsed.
Another horrifying picture shows a man reportedly dead on the ground with blood pouring from his head.
One local news site in Wuhan reports that the victim in the picture died from coronavrius.
This looks much more serious than the Chinese are admitting to.
QuoteSeven million people in Huanggang, which is 45 miles away, have been told not to leave after there were confirmed cases.
Suspended transport services have been put into effect in the smaller cities of Chibi, Xiantao, Zhijiang, Qianjiang, Xianning, Huangshi and Enshi.
In Zhijiang city, all public venues have been shut down except hospitals, supermarkets, farmers' market, gas stations and drug stores, Hubei Daily reported.
Indoor entertainment venues in Enshi city have also been shut down, it said.
Seems pointless making allegations against him now, now that he's left, but if stops him getting to the Lords, I'm all for it.
Agreed. Apart from the discredit he's bought upon the role of the speaker.
But then who are we going to trade with?
We will continue to trade with everybody whether we have a specific trade deal in place. No deal does not mean no trade.
I'm sure the papers will come up with another name that trips off the tongue more easily.
Woohoo flu?
Breaking:
Display MoreFour people are being treated for suspected coronavirus in Britain after flying in from China.
The patients are suffering flu-like symptoms and respiratory difficulties after arriving via London from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the deadly outbreak started.
Tests have not yet been able to rule out the killer virus, with the patients being treated by special medics in sterile suits.
if helpful
Coronavirus has killed 17 people in China, with five cities on lockdown, so far and infected thousands more with fears it could spread like wildfire on our shores.
Tests have not ruled out the illness yet and the group are being treated at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The patients, whose age and gender are not yet known, are being kept in isolation by the hospital staff with special medics in sterile suits treating them.
So they landed in London and have been who knows where and ended up in a Glasgow hospital.
If they have the virus it'll be running rampant soon.
Time to get those surgical masks on.
Display MoreA top anti-terror lawyer has warned that Jihadi Brides should be treated as harshly as terrorist husbands.
In a speech about terror laws Jonathan Hall QC said the law as it stands is too quick to judge women who married ISIS fighters, like Shamima Begum as "passive victims."
Mr Hall, who is the independent reviewer of terror legislation, appointed by the Home Office, is also conducting a review in the way in which agencies like the police, probation and security services investigate and monitor terrorists - known as Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa).
Speaking at a think tank event in Parliament last night he said: "Dividing overseas travellers into a cohort of fierce Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Jihadi brides is too crude.
“As there are different terrorists, so there are different individuals who went to join Da'esh.
“Calling all women Jihadi brides by portraying them as passive victims of males in some cases risks underplaying female agency; the law does not quite deal with those who provide important moral but not material support."
Sounds like the right man to do the review.
Don't really need the speed that FTTP would give. The home network is only made with 100T components so the free upgrade that VM are rolling out to 50 and 70mbs customers to 100mbs is all we can use unless we upgrade the whole network. 1080p streams without buffering even now and I can't see us getting a 4K TV until the Sony Bravia goes belly up. If it's like the other Sony kit it'll probably last for ever.
My poor sister says that she can't even watch Youtube without it buffering and stuttering.
Display MoreHundreds of employees at HS2, the state-funded body responsible for delivering the contentious high-speed railway line, have been told their jobs may be cut as uncertainty grows over the fate of the project.
Companies working with HS2 have also been told to slow down work, according to two contractors involved.
The moves came as the Treasury’s Infrastructure Projects Authority examined how to lower the cost of the high-speed railway line, which has more than doubled since its inception a decade ago to a projected £106bn.
The potential jobs cuts are part of a wider restructuring as HS2 moves towards either starting construction — or some or all of the project being scrapped.
Several hundred employees have been given 90 days notice and told to reapply for their jobs or similar roles within the organisation. Although 9,000 people are working on the project, HS2 employs just 2,250 permanent staff, with consultants and contractors making up the remainder.
HS2 insisted the jobs notices were “entirely unrelated to, and predates, the Oakervee Review”. It added the notices were “standard practice for infrastructure delivery bodies as they move from the planning stage to delivery”.
It's the trans-Pennine routes that need investment. Not shaving a few minutes of the commute to London for the rich.
Back to topic:
Display MoreThe water that once flowed on Mars contained just the right ingredients to support life, scientists say.
Measurements by Nasa's Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet since landing there in 2012, suggest the chemistry of its oceans would have been similar to those here on Earth.
Mars is among the places in the Solar System with the best chance of having once hosted life, with water - essential for almost all known forms of life - known to exist there in large quantities.
The ice on its surface contains enough water to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 metres, and it is thought that billions of years ago a denser atmosphere and higher temperatures allowed vast amounts of liquid water to exist.
No evidence has yet been found that life ever existed on the planet, but scientists have recently looked to find out what its oceans contained and whether they could have supported life.
Full story and pictures on link.
That's it, it's all over! The withdrawal bill will become law within the next 24 hours.
Maybe now we can get things moving after the last three years of paralysis.
Looks like a lovely place Heero.
She lives just outside the main village, right in the country though at times she says she would like to move back to Worthing. Her internet is total crap as she's on the end of miles of overhead lines. She was quite envious of our (lowly) 70mbs service.
Took a timeout today to go and visit my sister in Blackboys (East Sussex) and have a very nice roast chicken lunch. She needed some advice on some plumbing issues with a DS washbasin in the DS toilet.
No real problems. I just need to take some pipe bits and bobs up there and reconnect the stuff the "plumber" disconnected. Looks like he was making some "work"
I'm getting my train-spotting book out.
Not to mention the bobble hat and anorak.
Yes, very sad and as you say thanks for the laughs. RIP.
Never understand why you leave it so late to fleece it up Heero, but entirely your business of course. If it were me, I would've covered it up by October at the latest.
Because fleecing up runs the risk of damp getting in the crown and rotting the whole thing. I wait and monitor the outside temperature and the forecasts. I also know that they can take a -2C (short) frost so until that happens they stay unwrapped. So far we've not had anything below zero. They're still pushing out new leaves in the crowns at the moment.
The seats are comfy but too squashed together
On our electric Southern region trains there's plenty of room as pairs of seats face each-other on each side of the central aisle often with a small table in-between. The train doors are big double sliding units four per coach ( two each side) and user operated by a push button inside and out.
Some pictures: Class 377
But I've been on GWR trains (Sprinters) where they're like being on a coach. Horrid. Mind you that's better than the Pacers up North: A shotgun marriage between a time expired Leyland coach and a couple of coal wagons.
Yet another off topic post removed. Thread tidied.
Off topic posts deleted.
I don't see the need for anyone except the military for defence to own guns, and I include farmers in that
Well I'm sure those words will come back to haunt you if you're ever in the wilds of Alaska and grizzly had got his claws into your nether regions.
Don't forget there are legit reasons for owning a gun over there other than defending oneself against other humans. They have bears, mountain lions and other animals that can attack and maul a human.
Quite right for those that live in wild regions where a hunting rifle or hand gun are probably a necessity.
I think the main issue is the possession by normal individuals of high powered automatic weapons designed to kill as fast as possible as many targets as possible.
Fortunately it's their problem not ours.
