´óÏó´«Ã½

susan

what do you make of the depleted uranium story. british vets diagnosed with DU poisoning being raided by the MOD for conducting their own research? The MOD seems to have a don't look don't find policy. How much is it they are effective weapon and how much a cheaper way to dump 100s of tons of uranium waste as a fine powder that takes two weeks to spread around the world?

Some background
Depleted Uranium


...When British veterans Ray Bristow and Colin Purcell-Lee, both medics in the 1991 assault, blocked at every turn by the Ministry of Defence from finding out what was causing their life threatening symptoms, undertook the exhausting overland journey from Jordan to Baghdad, to attend an international Conference on the toxic threats the bombardment had caused, where some world foremost experts were to speak, they returned to a shock.

They had been collecting urine specimens from sick Gulf veterans and sending them to two specialists, one in Canada and another in Bremen, Germany, for analysis, and meticulously documenting the results. Those results included the fact that almost all of the sickest veterans had over one hundred times the 'safe' level of uranium in their bodies.

The police had raided Bristow's home and removed all the painstakingly gathered data and test results. Four eminent specialists involved in trying to unravel the troops' problems, two in Canada and two in the United States received threats on their lives, one was forced to flee across the States from his Professorship in a southern university, the other Professor fled the country....

THE CORPORATE ART OF SELF-PRESERVATION AT ANY COST (#1)

Britain knows, to its cost, that government has no morality: amoral at best, utterly evil at worst. On reflection, I conclude that this is true of ALL institutions, corporations, religious denominations, the military, police, schools, banking etc. It seems that individuals feel released from the requirements of integrity, through some vague sense of deference to a central morality THAT DOES NOT EXIST.

This is a fundamental problem of endemic immaturity in mankind. It will not change - CANNOT change - until we:

WISE UP THE YOUNG.

Rights group slams planned 'Israelis only' highway in West Bank?

..."Preventing local residents from using a highway simply because they are Palestinians is discrimination that is forbidden," Barak Medina, a professor at Hebrew University's Faculty of Law, told Army Radio. "While the [443 ruling] did not speak of apartheid, unfortunately this case is not that far from apartheid."...




as people ramp up their heating to cope with the cold funny how all that climate change hysteria has just frozen solid?

however there continue to be problems with carbon trading
'Carousel' frauds plague European carbon trading markets.

...Why are mysterious UK businesses registering to trade carbon in Europe? ...


and more evidence of the left's control of the 'climate' agenda

wellcome back Michael, christmas goes on far too long, all this forced jollity, and those hideous relations, bah humbug

paul

as long as QE is stimulating demand how can the figures be trusted?

Carbon footprint anyone?

Pimco move suggests UK could face sovereign debt crisis

Pimco, which has $940 billion of assets under management - said it would be reducing its exposure to UK government debt ahead of the closure of the UK's quantitative easing programme, due to fears that the wrapping up of the policy will result in a lack of buyers.

WHY WOULD A 'WISE MATURE' JUDGE WISH TO VILIFY, WHEN SENTENCING?

You might think this is off topic, but as the ills of this nation (and, indeed, the world) are due to individual and collective incompetence - our inability to run a sustainable residence, on a benign planet - I suggest I am very much ON TOPIC. I have pointed out, over and over, that Blair and Brown are manifestly deluded god-botherers, while being devious to the core. As they are top politicians, WE MUST LOOK TO OUR POLITICS. Likewise, if top practitioners in our system of Law, see fit to VILIFY (an emotional activity) then we should LOOK TO OUR LEGAL SYSTEM. Blair trumpeted 'causes of crime' - but criminals, too, have causes. The causes of criminals are not illuminated by judgemental judges, sounding off outside their remit. Might it be that the Establishment DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW what 'causes' a criminal - AS IT JUST MIGHT BE THEM? (Precisely as they don't want to know the part alcohol plays in our national disgrace - much in the news right now.)

'WE CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS' Too right Dave, but you have no idea how serious the REAL 'this' is.

It would appear that many local councils are experiencing a severe road salt shortage, and current film footage suggests that Winsford is working flat out 24/7 just to keep the country in salt hand to mouth. Back in the 1980s Winsford had massive stock piles of salt stacked either side up a mile down the road into the town centre. There was never a shortage of salt in winter, but I suspect that the eco-fascists put their oar in in the 1990s. Salt was always tipped and stored in the open, but the eco fascists squealed about run-off during rain so councils and the highways agency had to build sheds to put it in.

I'm a bit skeptical about the alleged detrimental environmental aspect of storing salt in the open. Lancashire County Council once had a massive open air strategic stock pile at Samlesbury by the A59, the standing water in the dyke at the side of the adjacent lay-by old road was the best place for kids to find frog spawn in spring. So it looks like appeasing the eco-fascists has stuffed us all again for no real benefit to anything.

The local authority in my area in north-east Scotland does not so much have a problem with a lack of salt but with paying overtime to staff to grit roads and pavements. We have had snow and ice lying on out pavments since 18th December and one rather unsuccesful attempt has been made to grit the pavement in our street during this time. With the accumulation of snow and also the thawing and freezing which has been going on, many pavements are covered in three or four inches of sheet ice. There has not been any grit avialable in grit bins for a couple of weeks now and the ice is too hard and thick to break easily with a shovel. The gardening and DIY stores have been out of grit for some time now and even the supermarkets have run out of salt. Self-help is therefore difficult. Where the main roads have been cleared, it is possible to see a large amout of potholes and other damage which has been caused by the weather. The council is, I understand, eating into its road maintenance budget to pay for the snow clearing so there is little prospect of much of this damage being repaired in the near future. Our council was in the process of making large cuts due to a budgetary deficit even before the forthcoming public sector squeeze.

Welcome to Britain in the 2010s or should that be the 1970s!

How many of the assembled panel of economists will be Jewish?

...just interested!

It was interesting to note that although ´óÏó´«Ã½ breakfast were pushing the McCelebrity eco-fascist " No Meat Monday " in early news, Benn instantly dismissed it when questioned. The link is broken to the full story of what was said in the full announcement but it should be clear to anyone with a working brain that we need to produce more meat. Much of the UK is unsuitable for producing anything else, and like one HYS post pointed out, Monday is traditionally used to eat up what remains of your Sunday roast. ( if you can afford one ) Even Chip shops would traditionally stay closed on Monday for the same reason.

Nedafo2

The council have been faultless here kept everything roads and pavements pretty much clear. Today have been walking around and the damage to roads and pavements is enormous. Just a 1 mile walk and what I could see with the snow removed and over £10,000.

It might be that clearing the pavements has been the problem. The water has got into cracks and the join between the kerb and the tarmac pavement, probably frozen and ripped it all apart. Might also be differential in temperature. The snow ploughs have piled it up on the kerb line then the cleared black pavements may have heated up. There are cracks running 100s yds. Pavement lifted at least 2 inches higher than the existing kerb.

It is a real mess in places. This is on top of the holes in the roads. With them talking about the longest sustained cold for 30 years here, perhaps the replacement thin layer taramac doesn't hve the same spec for dealing with cold as traditional paving slabs.

Having worked on the roads I am looking at it with a sort of professional eye. This will be a major story come March when the full extent of the damage is realised.

Brossen

British Salt used to store it on the way into Middlewich from Elworth and the Foden and ERF factories. British salt didn't used to dig it as they were into controlled brine pumping more for the food industry. So assume they might have stockpiled it from the mines at Winsford.

#10 Nefado
You must be Aberdeen City??? A bit better served in the shire - though only main road through village has been regularly gritted/ploughed, though that did include Christmas day and New Year's Day.

This IS unusual (worst freeze I have seen in 20 years here) and whilst we do shovel our path, drive, and pavement after each fall of snow, it has been nigh on impossible to prevent ice forming and reforming. I am almost out of 10kg salt I had in from last year and live atop a hill. I may be a tad too old to sledge to the shops.

I am not sure how any councils could be better prepared either financially or in terms of supplies, given how far from the norm or even long term forecasts this has proved to be and looks set to continue. And it is largely country wide too.

I hope NN recognise this fact and do not do to much finger pointing. There is still much more that every individual could do for themselves and their neighbourhoods but we are by and large a nanny state by our own lazy hands. Many are behaving pretty foolishly too.

Not entirely sure which the chicken and which the egg.

We spent 2 hours digging two cars out yesterday and I am seriously minded to place one of my offspring in the one awaiting husbands return before someone else pinches it.

As for all those potholoes, created by big heavy trucks most likely. That'd be the gritters then????????

#12 Brossen

Missed that particular 'eco-facist' slot. I expect there'll be another one along in a minute though.

So "Fish" and chip shops being closed on Mondays has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that few fish landings take place on Sundays then???????????????

As for what we can grow and should eat more of, I suggest we may consider pulped wood a new delicacy. Perhaps Emperor Blumenthal could get on to it. I hear squirrel (grey) is quite tasty too; Stewed wind turbine?

Roger #14

As far as I know the " white salt " was actually distilled brine, not from the Winsford mine at all but the stock piles of that got used up for the roads quick smart back in 1994 I think it was. They were once importing it from Italy and there is a mine like Winsford on the east coast of Ireland which exports to the UK, perhaps Scotland particularly.

BYT - you are indeed right about my local authority. I don't intend to criticise the local authority too much - I appreciate that the conditions are exceptiuonal and they could spend a fortune equipping up only not to see the same conditions for another 20 years.

I fear that Roger is correct about the cost of repairing the damage. The council sruggled to repair the damage after the cold weathwer of last February. God knows what will happen this year - there will be much more damage and a smaller budget. This was really my point. It was a comment on the implications of the financial position of the country. It seems that local authorities are now too skint to carry out their basic statutory duties such as maintaining highways and pavements.

BYT #16

Never heard of fridges then, we had them in most shops in England even as far back as the 60s, nice try but " no fish landed on Sunday's " is a bit thin in more recent history. Many Chip Shops now open on Monday's anyway these days.

#16

Brightyangthing

Any hot spice to go with your menu?

mim

Brossen

Seems they got rid of it last year. Some had been stockpiles for 15 years, which accounts for why it looked a dirty brown and not white.



I realised it was evaporated brine, but normally the process is used for high quality cooking salt etc. So not fully sure yet how they managed to have 20,000 tonnes lying around for use on the roads.

Chip shops didn't used to open on a Monday, it was the Chinese who broke with tradition and opened.

seems they think it could run into £100 million extra for Scottish roads.

Sorry posted before I had finished



They are looking at £100 m for roads, but most of the damage I have seen is pavements.

I'll go out with the camera an take some pictures of the damage I have seen tomorrow.

Is that being a bit of a anorak?

Now snowing really heavy here. Not had any all day. Not that it'll make much difference, we still have the snow from the 17th December on account that it's only been above freezing for a couple of hours since then.

Its well below freezing and the wind has got up and starting to howl and roar. The snows covering as soon as it touches.

#19 Brossen

Not wanting to argue with you - Oh, alright, maybe I do. Just a bit.

Yep. Got fridges. And Freezers. Live in one! I like my fish fresh as possible, not Friday/Saturday's left overs.

Round our way, and as long ago as I can recall NO wet fish shops are open on Mondays, OR Fish Restaurants or Fish and Chip shops. Any that are will not get my custom because their produce will NOT be fresh.

Peterhead, the biggest fish landing port in Europe I think, does NOT as a matter of course, land fish on Sundays. Nor do our local fishing villages on the Aberdeenshire/Angus coast.

IS THIS THE RIGHT THREAD FOR A HALIBUT?

How long does the fish spend in the hold, packed in ice, approx. nought degrees C? A fridge runs above that - would that be good or bad for freshness.

OMG why am I getting into this? There is a country to resuscitate and a world to save . . .

#26
Only if you've got a licence for it?

Funny though, as I am just about to serve Halibut to my loved ones. From my secondary freezer.

I could get paranoid here.

PARANOID? PURE LUXURY! (#27)

When we were young we only had haemorrhoid - one between three - raw.

Fur-coats: the divisive must-have for Russian women



refreshingly non pc 'i don't care' attitude especially in the put downs for the anti fur.

#28

Ate the halibut, in our 'ole in't road', now licking gravel pit clean wi't tongue foor us pudd'n. Then, if we're really lucky me fatha will dance on our graves and sing Hallelujah then me fatha will throw me moother on't fire saying' "you parrot face spawney eyed wazzock!"

Then I'll get up, half an hour before.............


Confused. You will be.

As for #29. Hope they remembered their ????????

Great - so you pull in a 'reformed' radical Muslim extremist and a Muslim MP to discuss terrorist profiling and then sit back and watch the ex Islamic radical shout down the MP whilst Paxman does nothing to intervene. Daft! You think we're daft!

America brought in racial and national profiling and its worked! The reason that they haven't brought it in for the UK yet is beyond me as we are so obsessed with Political Correctness and the howls of outrage from the liberal intelligensia that we're afraid to do it - and we're tha place where most of the terrorists are coming from! Profiling will save lives. For God's sake will someone stop appeasing these people and get on with a sensible tactic.

#31
'..... whilst Paxman does nothing to intervene'

I have seen this 'tactic' deployed before and actually think it is quite successful. You really get to see the hatred and venom in such people by allowing them just enough slack.

As for deploying 'racial and national profiling ' - surely the thinnest end of a very big iceberg like wedge.

Like peeling the bark of a tree in order to kill it. You really have a lot of hard work to do, digging out and killign the roots and runners before you get anywhere near 'the end' of this particular tree.

BEWARE THE ZEALOUS CONVERT - AND AVOID THE RIGHTEOUS SELF-REFORMED (#31 32)

Years ago the meeja would wheel out the uber-pious Malcolm Muggeridge who, from a haze of Christian righteousness, would hint at how wonderfully wicked he HAD been, before he found Claptrap.

That Hollywoodesque, Muslim 'good guy' strikes me as one who has seen a gap in the market - nothing more. He comes over as a political manoeuvrist - and politics is full of them.

BYT Do you think we could peel Paxman's Bark also? Then perhaps extract his bogus bite (and, while at it, excise the affronted eyebrows?) Paxo's putative genius is always lost on me, as I am distracted by his pantomime poseurmanship. (:o)

#33

MISS CON STRUE

Do you think we could peel Paxman's Bark also?

Now there's a thought. I'm sure there could be some takers. However I actually quite like trying to see beyond/beneath the obvious. Let me draw up a couch. Trust me, I'm a ............. (suggestions on a postcard please!

Following the logical thought process on barking and biting could land me in hot water so let's swap the analogy for a cat - mauling and roaring or purring and patting?

I wonder.
Definitely a smarty for sure. What lies inside that crisp candy coated exterior shell?

UNPACKING PAXO (#34)

Bring back Prof Anthony Clare (On The Couch) - or equivalent - and break Jeremy on the rack of the Psychological Inquisition. Was he bullied as a child? (You know what they say . . .) It is painful enough, having to watch a simpering Mandelson 'doing a number' but with Paxo, we get an infinite series of 'primes' - and pay him vast amounts of money also.

He is NOT a Smarty BYT, but he could certainly use a gobstopper.

I remain unsure on many aspects of the the (A)GW story that is unfurling, but I am one for erring on the side of caution.

Hence I am generally supportive of most warnings that are sincere and, as well as they can be, honestly founded.

Which means if bazillions need to be spent, so be it.

However, for the sake of my kids, and their future in it, I draw the line at rolling over on everything that is demanded, or excused, in the name of 'climate change'.

Hence, high on my eyebrow-cranking list is a succession of civ self-serves, quangocrats and doe-eared media moppets reading from press releases that kick off with the word 'unprecedented'. Like every contingency-lite eventuality 'wasn't me, guv'.

I call it the enviROI... environmental return on investment. Now if the once in a blue moon event of it snowing in winter means that it's not cost-effective to have grit or gas to hand, fine, but there needs to be a raft of much better, clearer ways of coping and or advising how to cope.

What I have witnessed so far does not encourage me that the money handed to those who claim to know what's best is in the most competent or efficient of hands.

And as been pointed out above, the balances and lessons of preventions and cures don't seem to have been well learned even over millennia, from affordably fast track planned flood plains to the consequences of frozen water in cracks 'complemented' by aggressive scouring.

So I'll be hoping that from artificial trees to pumping goo into the stratosphere & dumping iron in the oceans, to 'zero'-emission 'leccy cars to wind turbines without sensible inclement condition back-ups, our national broadcaster can be relied upon to hold our 'leaders' to account such the money invested in future is done so wisely and based on sound science as opposed to that, recently, which is more of the 'settled' Brown/Miliband/Rowlatt variety.

Which seems different to that I recoginse, in many worrying ways.