After Too Many Foxes And Badgers, Now Too Many Rabbits
This is actually quite an old story from the BBC, but it turned up in today’s Times.
At least though, when compared to foxes and badgers, you can make the buggers work, as after they’ve been strangled and skinned, they make an excellent supper.
The best rabbit I’ve eaten was on the island of Salina, where they are one of the few sources of local fresh meat. In one case, I had rabbit, with the other local delicacy; capers.
I’m sure if foxes and badgers were a source of food, they wouldn’t be such a pest to so many.
Why Does The MOD Call Directory Enquiries?
This report in the Independent is beyond belief.
I think that I last used any 118 number at least five years ago. And that was probably on a mobile, when I had no Internet access.
I suspect that the number of calls can’t get down to zero, as there are always difficult circumstances, when say service personnel get injured or sadly killed.
Dr. Who Episodes Found In Nigeria
This must be one of the strangest stories of recent weeks. I found it on the BBC web site here, when I was coming back from Palermo.
How many old programs from the goldern black-and-white age of British television are gathering dust in cupboards all over the world?
Knock HS2 And It Might Go Away
I’m not a great supporter of HS2, but this story on the BBC, being spun as how it will damage other areas of the UK, is pure scaremongering and very bad journalism.
The areas, they say could be worst affected are Aberdeenshire, Norfolk, Dundee and Cardiff. On the television this morning they’re adding in Bristol and Cambridge.
Putting in Norfolk is a strange one, as obviously HS2 spending will also hurt Devon and Cornwall. These areas though will hopefully get improvement in the next few years, but this will come from using better train technology on upgraded lines.
West Norfolk for instance will be linked into the Thameslink system and electrifying and straightening the main routes across East Anglia and Ely to Norwich, would improve the area a great deal. A lot of this will happen, whether or not HS2 is built.
Devon and Cornwall is more problematical due to the geography and the scenery, but I suspect that Plymouth and Penzance will be a lot closer to London, when the electrification and new trains being planned for the Great Western Main Line are completed and delivered.
The Aberdeen and Dundee areas north of Edinburgh will always be badly served from the Scottish capital, until you build a new bridge or tunnel over the Forth of Firth. I can’t see anybody leading a campaign to replace the iconic Forth Bridge.
Cardiff and Bristol are interesting ones, as courtesy of Brunel, electrification and new trains, they will get their own HSW before HS2 is even started, at the current rate of progress. Once the Severn Tunnel is sorted, it would seem that services between the English and Welsh capitals could be around two and a half hours or even less. Having just been through the very problematic Simplon Tunnel at high speed,which is almost as old as that under the Severn, I’m certain, that a few world class engineers and tunnellers can sort out the bottleneck on the railway to Wales.
To suggest that Cambridge will be hurt by HS2, is like suggesting that the London Underground, will be hurt by Crossrail. Cambridge has recently seen an improvement of the line to London and in a few years, it will be connected to Thameslink, giving it better access to London and areas south of the Thames.
I suspect, that the overpaid BBC hack, who started this story, wants to kill HS2, as he lives in an area affected by the proposed route.
Or could, the journalist be fed-up with having to go from his home in the South East to his place of work in Manchester, so he might be very anti-train.
The BBC article is in any case unattributed.
And of course, remember it’s a much better story, if it destroys something!
Fall Out From A Train Crash
On the fifteenth of October, there was a train derailment at Camden Road on the North London Line. It still hasn’t been fixed fully yet, as the train brought the overhead wiring down in a very difficult place.
It’s reported here in the Camden New Journal. Some of the comments are priceless and fairly paranoid and speculate about it being a nuclear fuel train. It was actually, a load of containers going from Birmingham to Felixstowe.
Probably the good news is that this derailment has caused great inconvenience to freight train operators and they will be thinking harder about using the direct routes via Nuneaton and Peterborough, thus avoiding sending freight trains through Central London. This will of course get easier once the Bacon Factory Curve is complete at Ipswich.
Tragedy In Italy
The deaths of hundreds of asylum seekers off Sicily is tragic.
What can we do in Europe to stop this vile trade, that often ends in injury and death?
As long as Europe is a place where there people are well off, migrants will always try to get here.
And criminals will always take advantage by providing leaky boats, with crap crews!
Tragedy In Washington
This story from the United States is tragic.
I’d like to think that such a case wouldn’t have happened here, as our unarmed police would not as it seems, shoot first and ask questions afterwards. Some armed units might, but they are rarely the first point of contact.
After all it appears from the pictures, that there were substantial barriers, to prevent the driver getting through.
But even if the lady had been a suicide bomber, shooting her would probably have caused the bomb to go off.
The Washington police have a lot of questions to answer.
Goodbye Gambia
I enjoyed a good holiday with C in Gambia the year before she died and I’m sorry to see them leave the Commonwealth, as reported in various papers today.
I obviously don’t want to comment on the rights and wrongs of Gambia leaving, but I did once have a breakfast discussion with the Speaker of the Mozambiquan Parliament about the advantages of joining the Commonwealth, which his country had just done. It was very enlightening.
On the other hand the Times did print this paragraph.
President Jammeh of The Gambia told the United Nations’ General Assembly last month that homosexuals were one of the “biggest threats to human existence”.
So perhaps, the Commonwealth is better off without President Jammeh.
A New On-Line Film Site
I caught this article at the bottom of a page in the Standard yesterday. The title describes it in one.
New player to stream 1,000 British films spanning a century.
It’s all here on the BFI.
i’ve signed up and it supposedly starts on next Wednesday.
Dalston On BBC Breakfast
Dalston featured in a report on BBC Breakfast this morning.
It was all about payday loans.
It is almost impossible to walk down the Kingsland Road without falling over the endless number of boards offering loans on the street.
All loans no matter where they are from, should be properly registered on a central database, which is then checked for anomalies and excessive borrowings.
The FCA is imposing new regulations as reported here on the BBC.
But no matter what regulations are tabled, it will not stop people borrowing at rates, they can’t afford. So the new regulations will probably turn out to be a business opportunity for loan sharks.
The Anonymous Widower 