The daft thing is to give him the chance to plead anything. Problem though is he is only on remand at the minute so hasn't been found guilty of anything and therefore they can't just extend his current sentence as he hasn't got one. No choice therefore but to charge and try him. He will probably end up with 6 months for it and by the time he is tried for the original crime he will have served it and be on remand again. So best thing would be not to bother trying him at all for it and just keep him in anyway. Be a lot cheaper and wouldn't give him the opportunity to feck the system.
Espionage is not to be taken lightly.......just need to have difficulty finding the key to let him out......and throw him out of the country and repatriate him to the place that he is spying for.
You don't know what he has done or indeed if he is guilty of anything yet apart from showing up the prison system that is. Of course we don't peek on anyone do we being British. Once upon a time you would have been hung for being convicted of murder. I'm guessing you would have gladly kicked away the stool of that bloke who served 17 years for a murder it was found he didn't commit recently.
He was in signals intelligence wasn’t he? There’ll be electronic evidence of whatever he’s done, garnered by GCHQ or the military equivalent, or possibly someone spying for us at the other end. The problem will be whether how they caught him is too secret to be divulged in court.
I despair at the dumbed down and emotive news coverage we see today, even on the BBC. I mentioned the other day how energy standing charges are increasing, focussed mainly on electricity. It's been a lead story on the BBC this morning. We've had several interviews with daft old sods (I can say that as I'm in that age band), one of whom was turning off his fridge to save money and saying that as he is using next to no energy, why should he pay standings charges? Couldn't they be included in the cost of energy itself so someone else paid it for him? Neither he nor the interviewer mentioned that could well be a struggling young family with several kids to keep warm and clean but using lots of energy in the process. No mention of the fact that the triple-lock protects pensioners (I'm one of those too) from inflation, which includes energy costs, whereas working tax payers pay both higher energy costs and higher taxes to pay for pensions. Now I'm not saying the state pension is enough to provide a decent life but that's a different issue. We can't just cherry pick specific items like energy, wheel out some sweet old lady to cry to camera, and make a bullshit story that goes nowhere near adding to the sum of human knowledge. No explanation of what standing charges cover i.e. largely the cost of the fixed distribution network, which is pretty much the same whoever you are or how much energy you use. If you don't want to share your part of the fixed costs, then have your supply cut off entirely, although of course that actually doesn't save a penny in the real world because the wires are still there. No explanation of the fact that the reason it's going up is because we switched first from having a local coal fired power station in every town to mega-coal stations in the coal fields, which vastly increased the length of the pylon runs to get the current to the user. No mention of the fact mega-stations are now being replaced by thousands of small solar and wind farms, many in the most remote places in the country, causing another huge expansion in the cable runs necessary to move the power. No mention of the fact that we don't in fact have the capacity to put up pylons fast enough to switch to carbon-neutral power. Green energy projects are being delayed by 5 to 10 years because they cant get a connection. No mention of the fact that when greens (the other ones) say wind and solar are cheaper than, say, nuclear, they probably aren't including the cost of connecting to a myriad of sources, some of them in the middle of the North Sea, others deep in the hills, rather than stringing an extra line into Hinkley Point C, which is already on a power station site with all the connections it needs. It's not complicated is it and yet there's a head of steam building up to subsume standing charges into unit energy costs where you can't see them and question them. There's the real issue.
The incompetence of Water companies to deal with sewage spills and leaks seems to be our fault....because these companies will be asking us through much higher bills to pay for their inability to do there basic job.......share holders must come first before the customers every time it seems....the only efficiency these companies have is to screw the customer to pay for their failures.
First class stamps going up to £1.25p......I will definitely be rounding up obsolete stamps and sending them to the PO to be replaced with the new style ones.
The regulator agrees (or rejects) the water companies' capital expenditure budgets. Up until now, the Government has set the objective to keep bill increases down. All the clamour for better environmental performance has led to that guidance being watered down (sorry) and the companies have now put forward increased budgets for capex, including new reservoirs. There are three players in this, the Government, the regulator and the companies and nobody's hands are entirely clean (sorry). The question is I suppose whether companies have spent a reasonable amount on capex in the past even within the guidelines or whether they haven't bothered to press for necessary projects to be included in their budgets, preferring instead to boost dividend payments to shareholders. Normally I'd just say that dividends are a fair price for the use of shareholders funds but in this case, where there is a captive monopoly market generating constant cash flows and a particular class of shareholders (pension funds), who have a unquenchable thirst for cash (sorry), I'm not sure the system has worked properly. This is a watershed moment (sorry). The tide of opinion (sorry) has turned in favour of environmental performance and reliability of supply. This stuff does have to be paid for somehow.
After the fiasco in the desert, that mad man in charge at FIFA has now decided that the 2030 World Cup will span three continents: Europe (Spain & Portugal), Africa (Morocco) and South America (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). Has the man never heard of global warming? He may have Platinum Plus cards for every airline on Earth but the fans don’t. Is there anything he won’t do to curry favour (and buy votes) from national football associations?
Had to smile about the man in Glasgow driving home late Sunday evening.....in his brand new...MG ZS EV car. He went to slow down for a roundabout and found out he couldn't do anything....his car was locked at 30 mph....his brakes didn't work....nothing worked and he was a prisoner in his car....thank goodness the car was still steerable....it just trundled on....roundabouts....traffic lights...etc...etc......good job the traffic was light because of it being late Sunday. He phoned 999 and eventually the police stopped him with a vehicle in front of him slowing him down by braking as he crunched into the back of it. Modern technology is a wonderful thing.
The Earthshot Prize is awarded to five winners each year for their contributions to environmentalism. So this years winners receive a grant of £1 million each to continue their environmental work. Well that sounds a very good idea.....BUT there is a slight problem in regards the environment. The whole show this year including the 15 finalists will be flown out to Singapore for the third annual ceremony on Nov 7th....organisers say the event will be "significantly bigger" than in previous years. So doesn't that mean... that flying the whole ceremony half-way round the world increases carbon emissions....which is not exactly doing their bit to save the planet....it's all a sham really...another good reason to have a good old knees up and a holiday at others expense.
The worrying thing is that China is building up a big market share in EV components and assembly of the cars. This has led to the big government subsidies in America to try to build up US capacity in the EV field. Why with spy-balloons and alternative maps of territorial waters in China Sea, the furore about the use of Huawei routers in the UK telecoms network and so on, it wouldn't altogether surprise you if to make a point, China was able to remotely bring all traffic to a halt by backdoors into EV software. However, my favourite story is about driverless taxis in San Francisco. The local authorities have allowed them to start operating on a trial basis, much to the annoyance and concern of sections of the population. The solution is this: please log in to view this image Cone the little buggers! Apparently placing a cone on the bonnet confuses the hell of the sensors on the little thing's roof and it just sits there frozen untill someone takes the cone off.
World Cup Shenanigans. After the Qatar pot of gold deal for the last World Cup arranged by Footballs ruling body....we have talk of one more in the making. Saudi Arabia have bid for the 2034 tournament.......and getting backing from such players as Jordan Henderson, Riyad Mahrez and Karim Benzema...plus Roberto Mancini...who have all taken Saudi Arabia's pot of gold handouts to move to the Arab country to ploy their trade. Football's governing body is on a collision course with major European nations after bidders to host in 2034 ....including Australia ...beaten last time by Qatar for the 2022 tournament....were told yesterday that they had just 25 days to declare an interest....with Saudi ready to see off all challengers. The Saudi's have been working on their 2034 bid for months. Football's governing body seems to have the knack of finding the biggest pot of gold with unnerving accuracy....I wonder how they do that.....we're not back to finding bulky brown envelope's stuffed down the back of the settee ....surely not....how dare I think that.
This is far more sinister than it looks. Because the 2024 World Cup is in North America and the 2030 World Cup makes flying visits (literally) to South America, Europe and Africa, that doesn't leave much for 2034. That's to say it leaves a lot of countries with little or no football presence but who have a vote just the same as giants like Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Brazil. Also, conveniently, many of those minor countries have an (alleged ) history of taking a bung to vote for whoever offers most. Neat huh? Pass me a Rolex would you? Then of course there's the question of Saudi Arabia's human rights record. It's probably unwise for any journalist to probe into that as they might end up lured somewhere and be chopped up into small pieces.
Hey you haven't sneaked in an extra World Cup there notDistant in 2024.......you'll get more than a Rolex for doing that.
Well, that is one of their aims too isn't it? To increase the number of games under the FIFA banner - including the idea of a FIFA World Club Cup. But slip of the finger, 2026 of course.
Interesting piece in today’s paper, reporting comments by Suella Braverman’s uncle, who, it transpires, is a Catholic priest. Unsurprisingly, he disapproves of her stance on immigration and hopes prays every day that she may learn to “relate with people in a better manner”. We all hope that mate, plus that she loses her seat at the next election. However, I’m confused by the final quote in which he says that “deporting them (asylum seekers) should be done in a very loving and compassionate way”. Sorry vicar, I didn’t quite understand that.
Had Covid on Monday at Home Park (sore arm overnight) and have flu in 10 days time, They were cutting the grass when I left Argyle on Saturday afternoon and they were cutting it again on Monday morning. Talk about a never ending task! I could have had both vaccinations at Home Park apparently: shame I didn’t know that before booking the flu jab.
We've all done it haven't we? "A man got so drunk at his own wedding he punched one of his wife's bridesmaids. Michael Hazell, 37, married his partner at a registry office in March this year before the wedding party made its way to Hayle Rugby Club for the reception, Truro Crown Court was told. Prosecuting the case, Ramsay Quaife told the court that the wedding party "enjoyed themselves" at the reception before what should have been a memorable day turned sour, CornwallLive reports. Mr Quaife said: "The defendant spent the afternoon and evening drinking and drank until he was unable to stand up. He was what is described as 'falling over drunk' and had to be helped up. Eventually it was suggested the wedding party should leave. The best man took the defendant outside and the defendant turned on him when he tried to sit him down. Both ended up falling over. A bridesmaid, the wife to the best man, asked the defendant what he was doing and as soon as she asked the defendant swung out his right arm and hit her to the side of the head, grabbing her hair at the same time. The blow was with such force it knocked the tiara off her head and she fell to the ground and felt immediate pain." From the 'Erald.
