The "And in other news..." thread

[Howardh]

According to leaked news, what to do with the Millenium Dome, including plans to move it to Swindon under the Blair administration

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...s-reveal-plan-move-millennium-dome-o2-swindon

Wasn't the original intention for it to be an one-off and pulled down in 2000?

 

[AM9]

Wasn't the original intention for it to be an one-off and pulled down in 2000?

That was the originally proposed design which had a roof with an expected 5 year life. Pressure was then brought to fit a much better roof fabric that would last at least 25 years, - something that has proved a good investment. It was even repaired pretty quickly this year after storm damage.

 

[Howardh]

That was the originally proposed design which had a roof with an expected 5 year life. Pressure was then brought to fit a much better roof fabric that would last at least 25 years, - something that has proved a good investment. It was even repaired pretty quickly this year after storm damage.

Hang on, something wrong there. "Forward thinking" and "Britain"?? Does Not Compute.

 

[AM9]

Hang on, something wrong there. "Forward thinking" and "Britain"?? Does Not Compute.

Ah, but that was under the Blair Government, not the short-term profiteers that run everything past 55 Tufton St. first, - that we've had for the last 12 years.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Wasn't the original intention for it to be an one-off and pulled down in 2000?

That also applied to the London Eye didn't it? That plan also swiftly changed for a more sensible one.

 

[Gloster]

It is being suggested that the Romanian authorities were able to locate Tate because of the pizza box seen in the video he made as a petulant reply to Thunberg. Thunberg has tweeted, ’this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.’

 

[brad465]

It is being suggested that the Romanian authorities were able to locate Tate because of the pizza box seen in the video he made as a petulant reply to Thunberg. Thunberg has tweeted, ’this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.’

Someone also edited his Wikipedia page to include a "fight" between him and Thunberg on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/simonharris_mbd/status/1608402335922888705

Andrew Tate’s Wikipedia has been updated …


Table of Andrew Tate boxing matches with an update to include a supposed fight with Greta Thunberg

 

[Lost property]

Excluding the poor kids, who were innocent victims, it was possibly prudent not to mention the IQ, individual and collectively, of the "adults " involved....

Barcombe: Seven people rescued after removing flood barriers

Motorists had removed barriers set up to stop cars from driving along the road, the fire service says.

www.bbc.co.uk

Seven people have been rescued after removing warning barriers and driving along a flooded road.
They had moved the road blocks aside in an attempt to drive along Barcombe Mills Road in Barcombe, according to East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service.
The six adults and an 18-month-old child were released unharmed from two vehicles during the early hours.
The fire service has issued a warning not to drive through flood water.

 

[yorksrob]

Excluding the poor kids, who were innocent victims, it was possibly prudent not to mention the IQ, individual and collectively, of the "adults " involved....

Barcombe: Seven people rescued after removing flood barriers

Motorists had removed barriers set up to stop cars from driving along the road, the fire service says.

www.bbc.co.uk

If only they hadn't closed the Uckfield - Lewes line in 1969, they may have been able to get the train instead !

 

[philosopher]

Scarborough’s New Year Eve’s fireworks display was cancelled last night to avoid distressing a walrus

Scarborough's New Year fireworks cancelled to protect walrus

The council called off the fireworks display over concerns it "could cause distress to the mammal".

www.bbc.co.uk

A New Year's Eve fireworks display had to be cancelled at the last minute to protect an Arctic walrus discovered in Scarborough.
The event was called off over fears it "could cause distress to the mammal".
Council leader Steve Siddons said he was disappointed but "the welfare of the walrus has to take precedence".
The walrus, which has drawn huge crowds since arriving on Saturday, is believed to be the same one spotted on the Hampshire coast three weeks ago.
Mr Siddons said the decision to cancel the event was made on the advice of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), who have been monitoring the marine mammal.
Wildlife experts have suggested the walrus - nicknamed Thor - may be "taking a break" and will move on in a few days once he is rested enough to continue his journey north.

 

[yorksrob]

Scarborough’s New Year Eve’s fireworks display was cancelled last night to avoid distressing a walrus

Scarborough's New Year fireworks cancelled to protect walrus

The council called off the fireworks display over concerns it "could cause distress to the mammal".

www.bbc.co.uk

I'd be more interested in seeing the Walrus than a load of fireworks anyway !

 

[341o2]

How not to dispose of Christmas decorations...flush them down the toilet

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23224421.southern-water-warning-fairy-lights-flushed-toilet/

It revealed an image of Christmas lights flushed down the toilet, and a separate image of a fatberg that caused a block in Winchester High Street in 2022.

 

[brad465]

Over the weekend Nadine Dorries tweeted about an article regarding Johnson needing to return or the Tories will die. A user called Bob Roberts made a critical reply, where Dorries then replied to that mocking his 15 followers. This resulted in him receiving a surge of followers to the point he now has over 30,000, and he revealed Dorries since blocked him:

Nadine Dorries mocked a critic for only having 15 followers and now he has 20,000

Nadine Dorries unintentionally created a new Twitter star after mocking them for only having '15 followers.'On Sunday, Twitter user Bob Roberts responded to one of Dorries' tweets where she claimed the Labour Party was going to "ensure that there will never be a Conservative majority government...

www.indy100.com

Nadine Dorries unintentionally created a new Twitter star after mocking them for only having '15 followers.'

On Sunday, Twitter user Bob Roberts responded to one of Dorries' tweets where she claimed the Labour Party was going to "ensure that there will never be a Conservative majority government again" should they be elected in the general election.

Roberts responded, "[Keir Starmer] surely can’t do any more to ensure there will never be another Conservative government than Johnson, Truss and Sunak have already done."

Roberts' sassy response warranted a response from Dorries, 65, who told him to "go discuss with your 15 followers."

While Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005, thought she was being sly, other Twitter users saw an opportunity to make Dorries look silly.

Thousands of people flocked behind Roberts, lending him a follow so he could prove to Dorries that his point resonated well with other people besides his 15 followers.

By Monday afternoon, Roberts had over 20,000 followers on Twitter.

"My followers have doubled now Nads," Roberts wrote to Dorries. "Thanks for the boost but now there’s twice as many I have to discuss it with.

People who saw the exchange called out Dorries for making a low blow to a person who disagreed with her opinion on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/NadineDorries/status/1612034457585819648

I don’t agree. But, maybe go discuss with your 15 followers.

 

[GusB]

Over the weekend Nadine Dorries tweeted about an article regarding Johnson needing to return or the Tories will die. A user called Bob Roberts made a critical reply, where Dorries then replied to that mocking his 15 followers. This resulted in him receiving a surge of followers to the point he now has over 30,000, and he revealed Dorries since blocked him:

Nadine really is the gift that keeps on giving! I noted that Bob Roberts' follower count is now 38.4k. I also noted that someone referred to her as "Dozza" - add your own word to that to make an appropriate alliterative nickname.

 

[yorkie]

Is Andrew Tate involved in human trafficking?
(Genuine question, as I haven't got a clue who he is and, frankly, couldn't care less!)

He has been arrested in Romania before on human trafficking charges earlier this year but then the charges got dropped. So i wonder if that will happen again or if he will actually be charged and prosecuted with something this time. There does not seem to be much information on what the allegations are.

I had no idea who this individual was until I read the news of his arrest.

I then thought nothing more of it until today.

I now see this news article has been published within the last hour:

Andrew Tate: How schools are tackling his influence

Teachers are trying to find ways to challenge boys who admire the controversial influencer.

www.bbc.co.uk

Schools across the UK are encountering increasing numbers of pupils who admire Tate - and so teachers are having to work out how to respond.
Some are actively putting out guidance on how to talk about him, as part of a concerted attempt to tackle his influence.

As it happens a 13 year old boy brought Andrew Tate up in conversation earlier today; I said something along the lines that I hadn't heard of him until his arrest but he didn't sound like a nice person. The boy seemed to think he was innocent and it sounded like he was keen on this individual. This caught me off guard and I didn't want to debate the matter, so I said I don't really know much about the subject and managed to change the subject, so that was that.

Now I read the above article, which was very timely for me, it seems to me there is certainly a cause for concern. I'll be sure to bear what this article says in mind, in case the subject crops up again...

 

[61653 HTAFC]

It is being suggested that the Romanian authorities were able to locate Tate because of the pizza box seen in the video he made as a petulant reply to Thunberg. Thunberg has tweeted, ’this is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.’

As good as it sounds, unfortunately this part is likely to be "fake news". Romanian authorities were apparently aware he was back in the country and already planning the raid.
Much like the promises of Tate's "Hustler's University" scam, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[brad465]

The German defence minister has resigned after a series of PR disasters, which included a very awkward NYE video where she talked about positive experiences related to the war in Ukraine, while fireworks exploded around her:

Christine Lambrecht: German defence minister resigns after blunders

Christine Lambrecht's exit comes amid pressure to allow the delivery of German-built tanks to Ukraine.

www.bbc.co.uk

Germany's Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned following a series of blunders and PR disasters.
It comes as Berlin comes under rising pressure to allow the delivery of German-built battle tanks to Ukraine.
Ms Lambrecht was mocked for her announcement that Germany was supporting Ukraine by sending 5,000 military helmets.
She was also widely criticised for failing to improve Germany's notoriously ill-equipped armed forces.
This was despite the provision of €100bn (£88bn) for that task following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ms Lambrecht, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), also came in for criticism when it emerged that she had taken her son on a trip in a military helicopter.
But it was an awkward video she posted on New Year's Eve which triggered widespread contempt and undermined her support within political circles. In the video, Ms Lambrecht talked about the positive personal encounters she had enjoyed during the war in Ukraine, while fireworks exploded around her in Berlin.
In a resignation statement seen by the German national news agency, Ms Lambrecht said: "Months of media focus on me doesn't allow for fact-based reporting and discussion about soldiers, the army and security policy in the interest of German citizens.
"The valuable work of the soldiers and many motivated people in the defence area needs to be in the foreground."
Ms Lambrecht was due to meet other defence ministers from Ukraine's western allies at the American military base in Rammstein on Friday to discuss further support for Ukraine.
The German government is facing renewed calls to approve the delivery of German-built Leopard 2 tanks.
It is not yet clear who will succeed Ms Lambrecht in a job which is considered such a poisoned chalice that many refer to it as "the ejector seat".

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Red mist descends. Why can't these people just leave us alone? Is there to be no fun allowed in life at all under these interfering busybodies?

The full story can be found here in The Times.

Office cake culture is a health hazard, warns food regulator​

Susan Jebb believes bringing sugary treats into work should be seen as being as socially unacceptable as passive smoking

Bringing cake into the office should be seen as being as socially unacceptable as inflicting passive smoking on your colleagues, Britain’s top food regulator has said.

Professor Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency, also expressed frustration with ministers’ decision to delay a watershed for junk food advertising, which she said led to a “complete market failure” that squeezed out healthy products.

She urged doctors to be more willing to broach the topic of patients’ weight and offer diet help, saying it was bad for the nation’s health that medics “mostly ignore it”.

Jebb, professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford and a member of The Times Health Commission, said it was not enough to rely on the “extraordinary efforts” of personal willpower needed to avoid overeating in a society that is constantly plying people with food.

“We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time and we undervalue the impact of the environment,” she said. “If nobody brought in cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them. Now, OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.”

While saying the two issues were not identical, Jebb argued that passive smoking inflicted harm on others “and exactly the same is true of food”.
She argued: “With smoking, after a very long time, we have got to a place where we understand that individuals have to make some effort but that we can make their efforts more successful by having a supportive environment. But we still don’t feel like that about food.”

The Times Health Commission is a year-long inquiry into the NHS and social care in England, which launched this week.
At its first meeting on Monday night, Lord Rose of Monewden, the chairman of Asda and former head of Marks & Spencer, suggested that workplaces should do more for people’s health. Rose, who undertook a review of the NHS for David Cameron, said that businesses already had to report efforts on equality, diversity and pay, asking: “Why don’t we lobby to say that also in that process as employers, we have a legal obligation to do something about our employees’ health?”
Two thirds of adults are overweight, including a quarter who are obese, a proportion that has doubled in the past three decades. By the time they start school, a fifth of children are already overweight, with most people in Britain now too heavy by the age of 25.
A succession of prime ministers have repeatedly rowed back on anti-obesity measures because of the apparent difficulty of reconciling the need to improve the nation’s health and reduce pressure on the NHS with Conservative hostility to “nanny state” measures.
Boris Johnson initially derided such policies but announced a crackdown on obesity in 2020 after accepting that being “way overweight” had contributed to his near-death experience with Covid. He set out plans to ban junk food advertising on television before the 9pm watershed and end “buy one get one free” (Bogof) deals on unhealthy products.
However, last month Steve Barclay, the health secretary, kicked the advertising ban into the long grass, pushing an implementation date back to 2025, beyond the next election.
Barclay, who is said to be resistant to bans and wants “more positive ways to promote healthy living”, must now consider whether to press ahead with the Bogof ban due to take effect in October. Labour has said it should not go ahead during a cost of living crisis.
Jebb told The Times that advertising of junk food was “undermining people’s free will” and insisted restrictions were “not about the nanny state”.
She said: “Advertising means that the businesses with the most money have the biggest influence on people’s behaviour. That’s not fair. At the moment we allow advertising for commercial gain with no health controls on it whatsoever and we’ve ended up with a complete market failure because what you get advertised is chocolate and not cauliflower.”
She said that the health service was so busy fighting crises in A&E, ambulances and waiting lists that we “never get into the root causes”, adding: “ We’re so busy mopping up the overflow from the butt that’s overflowing, we never get around to turning off the tap.”
Jebb urged the medical profession to warn patients when they needed to lose weight and offer them help in doing so.
“If a doctor comes across somebody with high blood pressure, they would feel, culturally, by training, by guidelines, by practice, that they must offer this patient treatment for their high blood pressure and explain to them why it was important,” she said. “At the moment, if a doctor comes across a patient who is overweight, they mostly ignore it ... The status in medicine comes from treating rare diseases with very expensive medicine and technology, and obesity isn’t either of those.”
However, Jebb insisted that obesity could be treated, citing “pretty cheap interventions [that] yield huge benefits”, such as NHS weight management programmes that have put type 2 diabetics into remission.The problem, she said, was to change a “culture in which people, health professionals, doctors, and particularly the sort of powerbrokers in the system, are pretty reluctant to go there”. She added: “We can change that. We’ve changed it with smoking. It took a very long time.”

 

[birchesgreen]

I dunno, i agree with the killjoy boffin. Being someone without willpower office treats can wreck my diet easily!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I dunno, i agree with the killjoy boffin. Being someone without willpower office treats can wreck my diet easily!

I'd rather know the health hazards of cake, or beer, or pie & chips then let me decide, not tell me what I can and cannot do. If these things are so bad, simply ban them. Or use Tesco etc loyalty schemes to only let me buy one pie per month if that's my allowance!

 

[PG]

I dunno, i agree with the killjoy boffin. Being someone without willpower office treats can wreck my diet easily!

Hardly in the same band as passive smoking though? Last I heard you aren't involuntary harmed by seeing food or being near someone eating!

 

[pdeaves]

Hardly in the same band as passive smoking though? Last I heard you aren't involuntary harmed by seeing food or being near someone eating!

Quite. So it becomes lack of self control, or blaming anyone but myself if I cannot control myself.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Hardly in the same band as passive smoking though? Last I heard you aren't involuntary harmed by seeing food or being near someone eating!

It is well known that the fumes off an iced bun can cause err nothing actually.

 

[Pete_uk]

The youth centre where I worked used to have a delivery of Gregg's pasties and cakes on a Wednesday. I would go in on the Thursday morning and just smell the sweetness in the air.

 

[yorksrob]

Imagine finding this staring at you in your garden:

Australia's 'Toadzilla': Record-breaking cane toad found in Queensland

The cane toad, weighing in at 2.7kg, is six times bigger than the average specimen.

www.bbc.co.uk

A cane toad so giant wildlife officers thought it was fake has been found in a north Australian rainforest.
The "monster" specimen is six times bigger than the average toad, weighs 2.7kg, and could break a world record.
Dubbed "Toadzilla", the animal was quickly placed in a container and removed from the wild.
Toads - which were first introduced to Australia in 1935 - are one of the country's most damaging pests and are now estimated to number over 2 billion.
When park ranger Kylee Gray first spotted the massive amphibian while out on patrol in Queensland, she couldn't believe her eyes.
"I've never seen anything so big," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"[It looked] almost like a football with legs. We dubbed it Toadzilla."
Her team quickly captured Toadzilla - believed to be a female - and returned to base to weigh her. They knew she would be heavy, but were surprised to find she could set a new world record.
The current Guinness World Record for the largest toad - 2.65kg - was set by a pet toad in Sweden named Prinsen in 1991.
Ms Gray says this giant specimen likely bulked out on a diet of insects, reptiles and small mammals.
"A cane toad that size will eat anything it can fit into its mouth," she said.
Toads have no natural predators in Australia and the poisonous species have wrought havoc on native animal populations.

 

[High Dyke]

BBC News - Batley: Police nab Chewy the chihuahua missing for seven years

Batley: Police nab Chewy the chihuahua missing for seven years

Chewy the chihuahua was reported missing from his Batley home in 2016.

www.bbc.co.uk

PCs Kirsty Stanley and Jacob Wood found Chewy on Wednesday while searching a house in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.

 

[brad465]

When I first saw the image going round I thought it was a scam/spoof ad, but turns out it was real:

Life insurance firm DeadHappy defends Harold Shipman advert

DeadHappy says it used the serial killer to "make people think" but it was sorry for any offence.

www.bbc.co.uk

A life insurance firm has defended using serial killer Harold Shipman in an advert after it was labelled "beyond despicable" by other industry leaders.
DeadHappy used the image to promote its services with the tagline: "Life Insurance. Because you never know who your doctor might be."
The Leicester-based firm said it wanted to "make people stop and think".
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) watchdog said it was reviewing more than 50 complaints about the ad.
Shipman is estimated to have murdered up to 250 people during his time as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester.

'Shocking brand'​

Senior insurance advisers across the UK have slammed the advertising campaign.
Kathryn Knowles, founder of Cura Financial Services, tweeted: "Please know that many of us in insurance find this beyond despicable."
Others called it "shocking" and "absolutely appalling".
In a statement, the firm's founder Andy Knott said: "We are called DeadHappy and our strapline is 'Life insurance to die for' so we are aware of the provocative and to some the very shocking nature of our brand.
"But being provocative is different to being offensive and it is of course never our intention to offend or upset people. It is our intention to make people stop and think. If however you have been personally distressed by this advert we do sincerely apologise."
Shipman was found guilty of murdering 15 patients under his care in January 2000, sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. He was found dead in his cell in Wakefield Prison in 2004.
An ASA representative said it had taken "careful note of the serious concerns being raised about this advert and we're reviewing complaints to determine whether there are grounds for further action".

 

[WizCastro197]

I had no idea who this individual was until I read the news of his arrest.

I then thought nothing more of it until today.

I now see this news article has been published within the last hour:

Andrew Tate: How schools are tackling his influence

Teachers are trying to find ways to challenge boys who admire the controversial influencer.

www.bbc.co.uk

As it happens a 13 year old boy brought Andrew Tate up in conversation earlier today; I said something along the lines that I hadn't heard of him until his arrest but he didn't sound like a nice person. The boy seemed to think he was innocent and it sounded like he was keen on this individual. This caught me off guard and I didn't want to debate the matter, so I said I don't really know much about the subject and managed to change the subject, so that was that.

Now I read the above article, which was very timely for me, it seems to me there is certainly a cause for concern. I'll be sure to bear what this article says in mind, in case the subject crops up again...

This individual, seems to be irritatingly popular among teenage boys, up to the extent where it is extremely alarming. I can't help but agree, there is cause for concern, thankfully his detention has prevailed.

 

[brad465]

This is an actual front page of a newspaper tomorrow:

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1619091070662443009

TELEGRAPH: The photo that ‘clears Duke’ over bath sex

Image of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph front page with headline "The photo that clears Duke' over Bath sex", with image of two people in a bath with cut-out photos on of Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre

 

[Gloster]

Bill Deedes must be revolving at high speed.