A touch of skywater, a whimsy of white fluffy stuff, a
memory of lack of cold, an absence of atmospheric movement and less solar stuff
than you could shake an icicle at, at the Castle this morn.
Just returned from the stale bread (still £1.45) gruel (now
89p) and his Maj’s food (up to £3.68) run dahn dobbin’s deli (otherwise known
as Tesco), usual mayhem, many, many interweb robots cruising about grabbing
everything in sight for those too idle to get orf their arses and do their own
shopping.
And especially Energy Secretary Ed Davey wants us to
provide up to £4bn to meet the cost of any of the six leading energy suppliers
going out of business, although the collapse of one of the major groups is
rated as highly unlikely the Government wants contingency plans in place to
safeguard against the risk of consumers being left in the dark and the economy
suffering.
“Four of the six – EDF of France, E.ON and Npower of Germany
and Scottish Power, owned by Iberdrola of Spain – are subsidiaries of powerful
global groups, while UK businesses Centrica and Scottish & Southern
Electric are big players in their own right.
The commitment of the foreign-owned groups to the UK market
is not being questioned but analysts feel the Government does not want to find
its self helpless if the parent faces a crisis and the UK subsidiary suffers.”
But a cost recovery programme outlined in an Energy
Department consultation paper on the issue, open for comments until March 15,
shows how the rescue costs could trickle down and leave consumers saddled with
paying for the rescue for five years.
Under what the department says is the worst case and least
likely scenario household bills could rise by between £7 and £32 a year on
average over the period, equivalent to a maximum contribution of £4bn on the
basis of 25.5m households in the UK.
Nice: Now who was it that sold orf our nationalised Gas and
Leccy companies-oh yes it was the Conservatives under Thatcher the snatcher....
Starting in March, up to 12,000 vehicles including Land
Rovers, trucks, semi-trailers, tankers, motorcycles and trailers, valued at
more than $100 million, will be sold by Sydney-based firm Australian Frontline
Machinery.
Most are about 25 years old with 125,000km on the clock and
not a bullet hole in sight, in either khaki or camouflage paint scheme.
They range in quality from rolled-over write-offs to
near-pristine vehicles fitted with premium accessories.
Defence is buying a new vehicle fleet for $7 billion with
phase three of the project to deliver about 4600 light and heavy vehicles worth
$3.1 billion. During the coming years the government will also sell hundreds of
planes, ships, helicopters, armoured vehicles, explosives and weapons as it
moves to replace 85 per cent of military equipment.
The sale of combat equipment is subject to strict rules to
prevent it falling into the hands of potential enemies or dodgy dictators.
Countries such as Fiji, Syria, Yemen and Iran, and companies dealing with such
regimes, are on the banned list.
Maybe Blighty’s Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club
Coalition will be interested.
A professional skateboarder is potentially facing jail time
after uploading a video that purports to show him skating at an astounding 68
mph through the middle of traffic.
South African skater Decio Lourenco faces the charges after
Cape Town city officials say his high-speed skating actually triggered a speed
camera. The speed limit in the town Lourenco was skating through is reportedly
37 mph.
“All that was needed was for one of those motorists to panic
and swerve into the oncoming traffic and you have a large number of deaths, as
we have already had on that road, safety spokesman Jean-Pierre Smith, told the New
York Daily News. "If we don't take action against him, every other
aspirant skateboarder will try it and one of them will come to a sticky
end."
Numpty-or otherwise known as a donor....
Here is something that could prevent all those ceiling
adornments and overdone pancakes, four design engineers, commissioned by The
Happy Egg Company, spent more than 200 hours to construct the Pancake–omatic
and another 100 hours to test it.
To ensure the pancakes are as fresh as can be designers installed a luxury nest throne for the hen to lay her egg in.
It then travels along a spinning gramophone record before being mixed with other pancake ingredients and flipped on to a plate.
“Don't worry, Gromit! Everything's under control!”
And finally:
From Tatton Park in Cheshire, England
Cometh the helium bridge, created by French artist Olivier
Grossette for a 'Flights of Fancy' themed outdoor sculpture exhibition, Picture:
Olivier Grossette/ Splash News.
Like it....
That's it: I'm orf to go retro
Today’s thought:
That's mine done, now how many do you want?
And today’s mellow melody:
As mellow as you can get
Angus