Sunday 27 March 2011

Clegg needs a re-brand: Clegg and winter fuel payments: Lost Cobra: Tesco get ripped off: Kebab goes for a walk: and Sweet sixteen million.

Back to the dark morns at the Castle this Sunday, but at least it is “summer time” ha bloody ha.
I see that the “alternative” demo attracted a lot of people, it won’t make a blind bit of difference to the arrogant, useless, greedy Coalition, we are still fucked…..


 Wade Allison of Oxford University seems to think that “nuclear radiation at very high levels is dangerous, but the scale of concern that it evokes is misplaced. Nuclear technology cures countless cancer patients every day - and a radiation dose given for radiotherapy in hospital is no different in principle to a similar dose received in the environment.
So what of the radioactivity released at Fukushima? How does it compare with that at Chernobyl? Let's look at the measured count rates. The highest rate reported, at 1900 on 22 March, for any Japanese prefecture was 12 kBq per sq m (for the radioactive isotope of caesium, caesium-137).
Unfortunately, the Japanese seem to be repeating the mistake. On 23 March they advised that children should not drink tap water in Tokyo, where an activity of 200 Bq per litre had been measured the day before. Let's put this in perspective. The natural radioactivity in every human body is 50 Bq per litre - 200 Bq per litre is really not going to do much harm.
Some might ask whether I would accept it if it were buried 100 metres under my own house. My answer would be: "Yes, why not?" More generally, we should stop running away from radiation.”
Travel to Japan in twenty years or so Wade, and talk to the young people then…..



Libyan rebels have pushed on westwards after recapturing the key oil town of Ajdabiya from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
Reports said they later seized the town of Brega, 70km (44 miles) away.
The eastern towns along the coast had been lost one-by-one to advancing pro-Gaddafi forces before coalition air strikes started last week.
Fresh air strikes have been reported at Sabha in central Libya.
Libyan state television said military and civilian areas had been hit, but there was no independent confirmation.

The interesting bit is “key oil town of Ajdabiya” but of course this isn’t about oil-is it?



Nick Clegg has ordered a re-branding of the Liberal Democrats amid signs that he could face a challenge to his leadership if his party continues to slump in the polls.
The Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned a complete rethink of Lib Dem strategy amid rumblings about his stewardship at the highest level.
Insiders say senior party figures including Chris Huhne, a former leadership contender, have been jockeying for position behind the scenes.
Rumours about Mr Clegg's leadership have emerged after mounting discontent among party members in the country who are furious at the direction the party has been taking in government.

I’ve never mounted a discontent……..and the new “brand” of the LibDems?.....Tory.


Nick Clegg has said he will write to a member of the public to "clarify" remarks he made about winter fuel payments, after appearing to be unaware of changes announced in the Budget.
Extra "top up" payments worth between £50 and £100 a year are being ended.
But when asked about it by two callers to a phone-in programme on BBC Radio Sheffield earlier, Mr Clegg initially dismissed their concerns.
Mr Clegg's spokesman insisted he was fully aware of the Budget's contents.
But, the aide added, the deputy prime minister's response could have been more clearly worded and he confirmed Mr Clegg would be writing to one of the callers to clear up any confusion.
He said Mr Clegg was correct to say that the main winter fuel payment would not be cut.
Under plans contained in the Budget, increases in winter fuel allowance for England, Wales and Scotland introduced by Labour in 2008-9 - but which the government says were regarded as temporary - are to be discontinued.
As a result, the annual tax-free payment to help people pay for their heating over the winter months will fall from £250 to £200 for the over 60s and from £400 to £300 for the over 80s in 2011-12.

So it’s not a cut then……


Officials have closed the Reptile House at New York's Bronx Zoo after a poisonous Egyptian cobra disappeared from an enclosure that's separate from the animal exhibits.
Zoo officials say the building was immediately closed and secured after staff learned that the adolescent snake was missing Friday afternoon.
The zoo released a statement Saturday saying it's confident the 20-inch-long snake is in an area of the building that's not accessible to the public. Snakes usually seek closed-in spaces and aren't comfortable in open areas.
Officials say they are informing the public out of an "abundance of caution and will continue to take whatever steps necessary to ensure public safety."

Shan’t be going there then.


Tesco has been left back-tracking after customers used a price promise to cash in — some effectively ending up with free food and money to spare.
The supermarket promised to give its 20 million customers a voucher worth double the difference between its price and Asda's in the "unlikely event" that products were cheaper when bought from their rival.
However, customers have been taking full advantage of the deal, with several getting hold of vouchers worth more than £100 after searching for the items with the biggest price gap solely to claim twice the money back.
One man claimed on a Manchester United web forum that he outsmarted the system - scooping a huge £600 from the Price Check pledge.
According to the Daily Mail, one ­­shopper splashed out on two bottles of Chardonnay, two bottles of Magners pear cider, two Nivea rich body moisturisers and a pack of mature cheddar after comparing items using Tesco's Price Check website.
The total bill came to £17.48 at Asda and £38.46 at Tesco — a difference of £20.98, which meant that Tesco was required to pay out a shopping voucher equivalent to £41.96.
Another customer spent £126 on a shop that would have cost £81 at Asda, and claimed back a £90 voucher.
The company promised: "We'll check the price of your comparable grocery shopping versus Asda and then send you an email when we have your results. Of course we're confident you will find your shopping cheaper at Tesco, but if not, we'll refund double the difference."
But the story has changed since then, with a spokesman for Tesco telling Yahoo! Finance: "The vast majority of our customers who use Price Check find that Tesco is cheaper than Asda.
"A very small number of people have used Price Check just to seek out products which a competitor has on promotion and to make some money out of our guarantee.
"We commend their ingenuity, but this isn't why we set up the guarantee. So we've introduced a £20 limit."
Tesco added that less than one in 5,000 customers have been awarded vouchers worth more than £20.

Whoops…..


Thieves have stolen an 18kg (40lb) frozen kebab from a takeaway outlet at Trowbridge railway station.
The massive block of meat, with a metal skewer running through the centre, was taken from La Capricciosa between 0230 GMT and 1400 GMT on Saturday.
The haul, valued at about £400, included bags of frozen chips and onion rings and 500 polystyrene kebab trays.
Anyone offered kebab meat in suspicious circumstances is asked to contact British Transport police.
Det Sgt Jon Rawson said: "If you are aware of anyone who has recently come into possession of kebab meat, or may perhaps be offering kebabs for sale when they are not usually in that line of business, we would appreciate your call."

Mainly because the local plod has gone into withdrawal…

And finally:


An Ohio man saw his credit card declined when attempting to pay for access to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, because his credit card couldn't handle the $16 million bill.
Lt. Daniel DeVirgilio, an engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, received the letter informing him of the problem on Wednesday, from Time-Warner Cable the letter informed him that his credit card payment had been rejected for non-sufficient funds, for a bill of $16,409,107.
Time Warner Cable Southwest Ohio officials on Thursday attributed the $16.4 million mis-charge to simple human error. An employee typed in the wrong number, which caused the TWC’s automated system to generate the rejection letter.
DeVirgilio didn’t receive a bill for $16.4 million, and that amount wasn’t charged to his credit card, a Time Warner spokesman said. However, DeVirgilio was concerned that it would affect his credit rating or cause his cable service to be cut off.
The TWC spokesman added, “We apologize for the inconvenience that it caused. We are going to work with the customer to get this resolved.”

Ah… the old “computer says no” excuse.

That’s it: I’m orf to touch up my pics

And today’s thought: If you can't be a good example . . . you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

Angus

2 comments:

Bernard said...

The mix up over the Winter fuel payments is because there are two types. One, the Cold Weather payment, is means tested and the Winter Fuel payment is not. There is no change to the former and will be paid to those who qualify when the temperature remains below freezing for 7 days (and I assume 7 nights). You have to be receiving Pensioner's Credit to get this.
But as you say, fuel prices go up.
(does that include fat greasy teenager?) and WFP comes down!
"Kill orf a few thousand pensioners and save money", seems to be the latest policy. :(

Thieves with no taste and no sense of smell, if you ask me!
Greasy kebab meat. Yuk!

James Higham said...

As a result, the annual tax-free payment to help people pay for their heating over the winter months will fall from £250 to £200 for the over 60s and from £400 to £300 for the over 80s in 2011-12.

If the utilities companies would just charge a reasonable amount and not employ people in non-jobs, then there'd be no need for it.