Grow some gonads Cleggie: Even Germany cocks it up: Copacabana cow: Dirty diners: Cardboard sucker; and How not to recycle.

Wet, windy and washed out at the Castle this morn, bit of a disturbed night-it started at one of the am with a thunder storm and a deluge of skywater which is still going on.

The study is filling up with deteriorating do-dahs and his (no nuts) Maj is allowed to escape into the garden today-shame about the meteorology...

And apparently the weather for "bonfire night" is going to be piss poor-oh dear....

 

Apparently Nick (who?) Cleggie is threatening to veto a controversial Treasury plan to freeze pensions and state benefits next April.

Son of a B...aronet (and alien reptile in disguise) George Osborne, who is allegedly the Chancellor, is considering whether to break the Government's pledge to raise benefits in line with inflation in order to save up to £10bn. But the move has provoked a rift with the Liberal Democrats, who are arguing that the most vulnerable people in society should not bear the brunt of efforts to reduce the deficit.

Mr Osborne, who will announce his decision on 29 November, has a dilemma because inflation is rising faster than earnings. The Government's policy is to increase most benefits each April in line with the consumer prices index (CPI) the previous September – 5.2 per cent this year.

It has also pledged to raise the basic state pension by whichever is the higher of three figures; 2.5 per cent, the rise in average earnings (currently 2.5 per cent) or the CPI. The Liberal Democrats have trumpeted this "triple lock" on pensions as a major "win" inside the Coalition because it featured in their election manifesto last year.

Yesterday Downing Street dismissed the idea that benefits might not be fully indexed as "rumour and speculation".

A bit like the hike in VAT and tuition fees then...

And:

German W Bankers

Managed to make a 55-billion euro ($75 billion) bookkeeping blunder that exposed it to ridicule across Europe, the Teutonic finance minister said Wednesday.

Wolfgang Schaeuble said it was "an extremely annoying mistake" for the nationalised mortgage bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) and the PwC accountancy firm to have let such an error slip through undetected.

The Berlin government has been scathing about Greece's bookkeeping practices during the euro zone crisis.

"I don't believe in looking for scapegoats," Schaeuble told a news conference after summoning executives from HRE and the accountancy firm to his office.

"Everyone promised improvements."

 Oh well that’s alright then...

 

Over to the left a lot and down just as much

From Rio de Janeiro's famed Copacabana beach to the busy streets of its downtown area, dozens of fibreglass cows took up their positions on Thursday (November 3) as the CowParade exhibition kicked off.

Brazilian artists painted and decorated the 72 life-sized sculptures, placed at key places in the city, including some of the city's once-notorious slums.

Along Copacabana beach, a cow that was holding a guitar in tribute to the Rock in Rio festival won admirers.

In Ipanema beach, a blue cow wearing a snorkel and flippers also caught the eye of passers-by.

The sculptures will be on display until December 20. At the end of the exhibit, the cows will be auctioned and the money will be donated to charity institutions.

CowParade has been held in more than 50 cities around the world since it was founded in Chicago in 1999. It first arrived in Brazil in the business capital of Sao Paulo in 2005.

Mooving tale...

 

Up more than a smidge

San Francisco is drawing the line at nude public dining.

The city's Board of Supervisors has adopted new rules that ban naked people from eating in restaurants, and forces nudists to place a cover on public chairs and benches before they sit down, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

Anyone who disobeys the new code will be fined $100 for a first offence, $200 for a second offence and three-time offenders face a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.

The law was approved in an 11-0 vote with no debate and will face final consideration next week before it can be signed into law by Mayor Ed Lee.

Public nudity is generally tolerated in the city and is particularly popular in the Castro neighbourhood.

No sausages on the tables then....

Back in Blighty

A student has designed an eco-friendly vacuum cleaner made out of its own cardboard packaging.

Jake Tyler, 23, from Birmingham, came up with the idea as part of his final year project at Loughborough University.

And manufacturers Vax were so impressed that they are to mass produce it and put it on sale next year.

Created with the help of engineers at Vax, the vacuum is made up from the very box that it comes in - even down to the wheels.

Mr Tyler, who achieved a first class honours degree in his Industrial Design and Technology course, has now landed his dream job with Vax.

Vax spokesperson Jo Sawyer said: "It's a high performance vacuum cleaner constructed for optimum sustainability, using recycled and recyclable materials that reduce the burden on landfill."

 That should piss orf Dyson....

And finally:

Dahn a bit to the Smoke

Blow up dolls; vibrators and an urn containing ashes are among items placed in recycling bins, a council revealed today.

Enfield Council in London said it "beggared belief" what some of its residents tried to recycle as it published a list of some of the most extreme cases.

These include dead pets, oil paintings, a fish tank, sex toys, and a plastic Christmas tree which was placed in an organic waste bin.

Refuse collectors discovered an urn containing the ashes of a person or animal - so placed it back on the property's doorstep.

Councillor Chris Bond said: "It's no laughing matter because if recycling is contaminated it has to be sent to landfill and it costs us a fortune to dispose of it.

No, it costs us a fortune...

That’s it: I’m orf to charge up the iPhone 

And today’s thought:

"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something." -Jackie Mason

           

Angus

A CUNNING PLAN

El Gordo dragged his MPs into a meeting at Westminster yesterday and managed to convince them that he is the man to lead Labour out of recession and into another term of office.

I don’t know how he did it; maybe it was a combination of threats and grovelling, or perhaps it is because that the MPs are too afraid to tell him what they really think.

What El Gordo doesn’t realise is that it is not the MPs he has to convince but us, and following the expenses thing and his lack of leadership he has a rather high mountain to climb.

And, let’s not forget who destroyed the economy in the first place by removing regulation from the Financial Services sector when he was Chancellor.

Today he meets with his new cabinet for the first time; the “brown noses” will be out in force; that is of course apart from those plotting his downfall behind his back.

Smokers under fire again

BBC NEWS Treating disease directly caused by smoking produces medical bills of more than £5bn a year in the UK.

In 2005, smoking accounted for almost one in five of all deaths and a significant amount of disability, the Oxford University team said.

The British Heart Foundation who funded the research said tighter regulations were needed on the sale of tobacco.

Previous estimates have put the burden of smoking on the NHS at £1.4bn to £1.7bn, the researchers reported in Tobacco Control.

Study leader Dr Steven Allender, said the increased costs were largely due to increasing expense of treatment on the NHS with better treatment and technologies.

"The story is not so much the five-fold increase but that £5bn is an enormous number regardless.”

"There's two different ways of looking at this - one is if nobody smoked we would save £5bn but the alternative view is this is an enormous health problem and should be moved back up the policy agenda."

Drawing on their previous work on other lifestyle issues, he added that smoking cost five times more than lack of physical activity, twice the cost of obesity and about the same as an unhealthy diet.
A separate paper published by the team in the Journal of Public Health found that alcohol consumption costs the UK NHS £3bn.

Betty McBride, policy and communications director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "This is money being drained out of the NHS as a direct result of something we have the power to prevent.

"Yet the true tragedy of this monstrous figure is the lives that are cut short or ruined as a result of smoking.

"This study shows exactly why we need the strongest possible measures to control the sale of tobacco."

However, Simon Clark, from the smoker's lobby group Forest, said the figure in the report was a guesstimate, and should be treated with contempt.

Mr Clark said it was preposterous to suggest that the cost of smoking to the NHS had risen dramatically, as smoking rates had been falling for 50 years.

He said: "Even if it was true, smokers still contribute twice that amount to the Treasury in tobacco taxation and VAT.

"Far from being a burden on society, smokers make an enormous financial contribution."

Another part of the cunning plan; and an excuse to put up prices again.

Not really funny but……

Telegraph a 66-year-old man was knocked down by the silver Mercedes when it suddenly lurched forward as his son, coached by a brother in the passenger seat, tried to manoeuvre it away from the clubhouse.

Doctors attending a medical conference at the venue ran to help the man at Sonning Golf Club, Berkshire, and treated him for a serious leg injury before paramedics arrived.

However, minutes later he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Paramedics used a defibrillator and he regained consciousness, but then later died at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in nearby Reading.

A member of the club, where players pay up to £1,100 pounds for five days on the course, said the unnamed the victim, who lived in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, had been driven to the venue by his two sons.

"After he was dropped off, one of the sons, who was learning to drive, was being given a lesson by his sibling," he said.

"Unfortunately the car lurched into the elderly father and knocked him down.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "A silver Mercedes collided with a 66-year-old man in the car park of the Sonning Golf Club, on Duffield Road at around midday on Saturday," he said.

"The man was taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where he later died."

As I said not really funny but what a bit of luck finding all those Doctors at a golf club.

The progressive Labour party; stepping back 50 years


From the Telegraph slop buckets in every home as councils consider a ban on food waste in landfill

Every home could be forced to use "slop buckets" under Government plans to cut waste by banning councils from dumping food scraps in landfill.

With the new recycling boxes, used for all leftovers and all other food waste, households will have to deal with up to five different bins and remember increasing complex patterns of waste collection. Campaigners are also concerned about the hygene implications of leaving out rotting food particularly during the hot summer months.

However, Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said it was ridiculous to continue dumping food waste or other materials such as aluminium or glass that can be recycled or used to generate energy.

He announced a £10 million investment in new technology that turns food waste into biofuels and launched an informal consultation on banning food waste being sent to landfill.

If councils are not allowed to send food waste to landfill it will mean collecting food scraps separately in a slop bucket so it can be converted into fuel or burned along with other materials in an incinerator.

Councils warned the cost would be passed to taxpayers unless they are allocated additional funds and campaigners said the new system could have problems for hygiene.

Almost one in four councils have already introduced separate food waste collections and there is pressure from the EU for more to follow.

Doretta Cocks of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said householders are already concerned about unpleasant odours from food waste attracting flies and other pests.
"As well as having serious implications for council tax payers, compulsory food waste collections would be impossible to administer," she said.

However Richard Swannell, director of retail and organics at the Government's waste watchdog WRAP, said that in areas where separate food collections have already been introduced people have reported a high level of satisfaction.

"Chucking food waste into landfill produces greenhouse gases that are contributing to global warming. It is much better if we cut food waste in the first place, compost it at home or use a process that generates electricity and also preserves the nutrients [anaerobic digestion]," he said.

Yeah right, we haven’t got anything else to do have we? This of course comes from the EU which only 30% or so of us voted for.

And finally:

Another part of the cunning plan?

The £5 Henry VIII commemorative coin that is yours for £4,400 - Telegraph

The Royal Mint has issued 100 of the Crowns in platinum at £4,400 each to mark a reign which instigated the Golden Age in English History.

It is the first time in more than 450 years that the monarch's head has graced a coin and Royal Mint hope they will become treasured mementoes of his controversial reign.

Dave Knight, Director of Commemorative Coin at the Royal Mint, said: 'Love him or hate him, Henry VIII is undoubtedly one of history's most influential monarchs.

"His reign changed the face of England forever and we felt it was essential that this remarkable period of history was commemorated with a lasting and treasured memento."

A further 1,509 (the year he came to power) coins in gold are also available for £1,195 each with 10,000 more in silver, priced at £44.95, and 100,000 in nickel for £9.99.

The Royal Mint's coin shows the great king standing before a frieze of roses in the 'antique' style much favoured in the carvings and tapestries of the period.

The edge of the coin features a Latin inscription "ROSA SINE SPINA", which was also used on Henry VIII's own coinage and translates as 'Rose without a Thorn'.

And a quote from me: at those prices-bugger off.


“I have a very, very, very cunning plan. Is it as cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning?”- Blackadder

Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

CLEANED UP

Yesterday turned out to be quite good, after a strange start I kicked myself up the backside and got stuck in.

The sun finally came out and I had a binge in the garden, mowed the moss (not much grass left) weeded the beds and pruned anything that didn’t move, as there is nothing like a good hack at an inanimate object for boosting your “happy” level.

Then I got stuck in to the attic, and collected a pile of stuff for the recycling centre, along with sundry other items, and loaded it all in the car, which is now full to overflowing.

So I have five large bags of garden waste, various computer cases in bits, speaker stands and an old TV stand to dispose of, and I felt good.

The recycling centre opens at eight this morning, and I am going down there early to dispose of the unwanted items.

The only sang is I am knackered, and walking like Quasimodo, ache all over and feel all of my nearly 58 years, that will teach me.

A “proper” blog will be posted later, after I have had a sit down and a cup of very strong coffee.


“Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.” Henri Frederic Amiel


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE