Royal cheeks-allegedly: Bin snooping? True lies: Racist Sarnies: Crèche and curses: Breast washing machine: and the Rose Galaxy.

Plenty of solar activity, even more lack of warm, much less atmospheric movement and nary a whimsy of skywater at the Castle this morn.

In response to overwhelming public demand (thanks AK Haart) you are still going to be subjected to my pointless rambles for a while yet (see yestermorn’s post).

And the interweb thingy seems to be going tits up-spotted the theme yet?

 

It seems that the Royal Norks thingy was legit after all, and being a bit of a breast man I still can’t see what all the fuss is about she doesn’t really have much to boast about, her minor Maj didn’t mind cavorting about in nearly nothing whist at Uni, but what really intrigues me is: What the hell is the tall, thin bald bloke doing in this pic? It isn’t about Norks but if this Piss Poor blog disappears overnight you will know that “they” don’t want snaps of the Royal arse bandied about the Blogosphere.

 

Still it seems that the mob at Buck House have pre-empted the problems by sending the pair out to places that are not very happy with non Muslims, a bit like sending dirty Harry out to Afghanistan after his photo session in Vegas-much less suspect than a car crash....

 

Apparently the Pickles bin police are still poking about in our refuse

Despite the Coalition's promises that councils' powers would be curbed thousands of people are still being fined over their household rubbish.

Ministers have repeatedly promised to stop councils levying fines of up to £1,000 on householders for minor infractions like leaving bins out on the wrong day.

But evidence from a survey using Freedom of Information laws by campaigners suggests that thousands of households are still being fined despite the pledges.

A report by the Manifesto Club, to be published on Monday, found that 88 out of 358 councils across the UK had issued “waste receptacle” fines in 2011/12.

Josie Appleton, director of the Manifesto Club, said: “Bin fines have become a money-making operation, rather than a last resort to deal with real offenders.

Under the current system, councils have the power to issue fixed penalty notices of up to £110, or push for criminal convictions and a fine of up to £1,000.

In one instance, a woman from central London was fined when she threw away one of her company’s bank statements into her household collection.

Sabine Guerry, who lives in Westminster, said she was fined for post relating to her own private company at her home address.

She said: “Westminster Council agents opened and searched my rubbish bag in front of my door, and found one bank statement from my company together with my personal waste.

“They deduced that this was “commercial” waste, took some pictures, and sent me an £80 fine for illegal commercial littering.

“They said I should have used a dedicated commercial bin bag, labelling who was collecting my rubbish. They seem to be suggesting that I employ somebody separately to take away my company’s bank statement.”

Westminster council said that it "would not fine a resident for simply putting rubbish in a bin", adding: "The only reason we would look through waste is if it has been dumped illegally, and to look for evidence of who dumped it.

 

Ah the old fly tipping ruse.....

 

Up in the Smoke

Anna Soubry, a health minister, has said that the Coalition “screwed up” over its controversial reforms of the NHS according to the Torygraph.

Miss Soubry, a junior health minister, made the frank remark in a private discussion with health service managers about reforms that will give GPs control of £80 billion of health spending.

It is the second outspoken statement Miss Soubry has made since her appointment ten days ago.

Last weekend, she angered some Conservative MPs by suggesting that euthanasia laws are “ridiculous” and should be changed to make it easier for the sick to end their own lives.

In a private question-and-answer session, she was asked about the way the Government had dealt with medical professionals and the Royal Colleges representing them over the reforms.

“We screwed up,” she replied, according to sources at the event.

Many of the colleges initially supported the reforms drawn up by Andrew Lansley, the former health secretary, but gradually withdrew their support.

That helped ensure the Health and Social Care Act had a bruising passage through Parliament and attracted significant public protest.

Some Conservatives fear the reform package has cost their party the public trust over health David Cameron tried to win in opposition.

 

And most of the voters...

 

Across the deepening salty thing on the left

According to Verenice Gutierrez, principal of Harvey Scott K-8 School Portland, Oregon peanut butter and jelly sandwiches carry racist connotations.

“Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year,” “What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” Gutierrez asked.

“Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’

The Tribune noted that the school started the New Year with "intensive staff trainings, frequent staff meetings, classroom observations and other initiatives," to help educators understand their own “white privilege,” in order to "change their teaching practices to boost minority students’ performance."

"Last Wednesday, the first day of the school year for staff, for example, the first item of business for teachers at Scott School was to have a Courageous Conversation — to examine a news article and discuss the 'white privilege' it conveys," the Tribune added.

 

Totally bleedin bonkers and this daft mare is in charge of a school!

 

Back in f#~^ing Blighty

Peter Capaldi and Alastair Campbell were left embarrassed when their sponsored swear-off for charity was accidentally broadcast to a crèche.

The Thick of It star and the former Downing Street press chief were appearing at a charity day at the headquarters of City trader BGC.

They were talked into the ‘swearathon’ in order to raise money for the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research team, and their diatribes were broadcast across the entire building until organisers realised that they were audible in the children’s crèche downstairs from the trading floor.

Mr Campbell apologised to “the kids and their mums and dads, and anyone else who took offence”.

“Our only defence is that the traders looked in need of a laugh after a day spent trying to humour celebs, and we were raising money for our respective charities,” he added.

Campbell won his swear-off against the Glaswegian actor by managing to cram eleven uses of the f-word into a one-minute speech.

 

Only eleven, fucking useless...

 

Right a smidge and back quite a few chronological units

 

Comes the circa 1930s breast washer, which is apparently a massage device, which claims to prevent sagging, enlarge small breasts, shrink large breasts, and generally meet all your personal breast-care needs.

Wonder if they did one for chaps...

 And finally:

 

From the depths of the Universe

Comes an amazing Hubble bubble pic of the Rose Galaxy known as UGC 1810, it has a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813.

 

Cool....

 

That’s it: I’m orf to check out the erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet injector thingy

 

And today’s thought:

That’ll teach her to have her nipples pierced

 

 

 

Angus