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Thread | Review of Water Industry
at 09:39 20 Jul 2025
This is due to be published tomorrow. I will be interested to see if there’s anything in it or whether it’s just another can to kick down the road. They love a Review. Especially, as has been shown with the Waspi women, it can be completely ignored.
The problems and the reasons behind the national disgrace of the water industry have been blindingly obvious for literally decades. No government has given a hoot about it and in the meantime this country is turning into an environmental toilet.
Ironically, I don’t blame the owners of the water companies at all. They are doing what is right by their shareholders. Of course renewing infrastructure, repairs and leaks are at the bottom of the priority list.
When the Tory criminals sold off this asset we all already owned, they were solvent. Now they are not and we are paying through the nose something that should be dirt cheap in a country with this amount of rainfall. Our rivers and coasts should not have any sewage running into them either.
Labour have been in power a year. They knew what the problems were long before the last election. What has Environment Secretary Reed done in the last year, beyond the odd Sudoku? Zilch by the look of it but maybe I’m being harsh. And those still alive who were responsible for this disaster plus those since who’ve ignored the obvious every year since should be held to account.
Thoughts?
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Thread | Starmer’s judgement
at 21:20 23 Jun 2025
There’s an interesting article in the Independent on Starmer continually getting it wrong with Trump. Specifically on Iran, Ukraine, Tariffs.
Is it correct? Does Starmer lack judgement? Is he just getting caught out sitting on the fence? Or is the orange shtgibbon completely unreadable and everyone bar Putin and Netanyahu getting it wrong too?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-trump-middle-east-crisis- [Post edited 23 Jun 22:48]
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Thread | US and MRNA vaccines abandonment
at 19:00 14 Jun 2025
Interesting that notorious anti vaxer RK Kennedy Jr and bleach to cure Covid Trump are sticking the boot in on vaccine research.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/14/mrna-vaccines-trump-rfk-jr
I was wondering what our resident experts particularly SB think about this? Are the trumpmeisters right to bin it? Are vaccines a greater risk? Should we let nature take its course even if that means abandoning research into MRNA and therapeutics having potential positive effect on treating cancer?
I think it’s nuts, but am ignorant on the subject really. I’d be interested in peoples views. |
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Thread | Starmer and the G7 Conference
at 12:45 14 Jun 2025
Attached is an Independent article on the G7 meeting coming up.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/g7-summit-starmer-trump-canada-b2
Basically what’s at stake is potentially the relationship with Canada, following Starmer’s sell out last time he was in America. UKs trade deal with the US, which let’s face it, looks like a lot of hot air. The annoyance of the Americans at U.K. for sanctioning Israel and finally the Aukus submarine deal with US and Australia.
Given how fence sitting weak Starmer appears to be, it’ll be interesting to see which minefield he avoids and which he doesn’t.
Personally, I hope the Submarine deal collapses and U.K. and Australia seek a partnership with a non authoritarian country such as France. The faster we move away from America militarily the better.
Trade Deal? Forget it. There won’t be one without punitive terms that compromise the U.K. so tell them to get stuffed.
US hostility to U.K. sanctioning Israel? Tough. They shouldn’t be stealing land that isn’t theirs. Support against Iran and the latter’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons? I’m for that given what an appallingly dangerous regime Iran has.
Lastly the most important bit of all. Canada. Starmer should be backing Canada to the hilt including offering defence, albeit token given the hollowed out military, against US aggression.
I’m of course no politician. Never could be in a million years so I’m not qualified to judge anything much, but is Starmer capable of negotiating this conference with outcomes he wants? I hope so, but have my doubts. |
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Thread | Woodbridge Indian
at 20:46 5 Jun 2025
Tonight’s culinary experience, or nosebag to the likes of me was Shapla in Woodbridge.
Poppadoms and pickles, prawn puri and meat samosas starter. Tandoori mixed grill with bicycle seat, Aloo Gobi, mushroom rice washed down with Cobra.
I have to say it was lovely. Good service from pleasant people, great food, no pressure to mangle your food quickly, pretty busy restaurant. Happy days. 9/10
Is there better in the area? |
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Thread | Fish and Chips
at 15:22 4 Jun 2025
Lunch with Mrs C in Aldeburgh today after a mooch around. The Upper Deck, ‘admirals’ portion (large) and a pot of tea. Lovely service, clean, efficient, nice little room. Cod and chips to die for. 10/10.
Thoroughly recommended - as good as anywhere and a gazillion times better than the pale imitations you get in foreign places like America. |
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Thread | 109 years ago.
at 23:07 31 May 2025
As a distraction from Delapgate, a little bit of an event 109 years ago that shaped the world as we know it. The Battle of Jutland.
250 ships met in the North Sea in one of the largest sea battles ever fought. The short summary attached tells a lot of the story, but not all. The objective for the Germans was to challenge and destroy the Royal Navy piecemeal as they were short on numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jutland
German Battlecruisers Von Der Tann, Lützow, Derfflinger, Seydlitz, Moltke under Hipper attracted Lion, New Zealand, Queen Mary, Princess Royal, Indefatigable, Tiger commanded by David Beatty . The Germans positioned themselves better leaving the British silhouetted in the fading light, had better optics and actually better gunnery and procedures of handling charges. The shells themselves were also more destructive.
Beatty whose fleet handling I think was in general poor didn’t wait for the supporting 5 Battle Squadron superdreadnoughts Barham, Malaya, Valiant, Warspite - far superior to anything the Germans had.
Hipper’s battlecruisers got the best of it. Lion was nearly destroyed when Q turret was hit. Royal Marine Major Francis Harvey VC saved the ship by getting the magazine shielded off and flooded. Not so lucky was the Indy. Blown up by Vonn Der Tann. Next, Queen Mary was hit by Derfflinger and Seydlitz and blew up with nearly all her crew.
Beatty’s ships were being led into a trap of total destruction by the High Seas Fleet. Supported be the 5th Battle Squadron, the British Battlecruisers turned and headed north chased by the Germans.
The Germans chased right into the arms of the Grand Fleet. Despite dreadful signalling by Beatty and Goodenough in the cruiser Southampton, Admiral John Jellicoe managed to deploy the Grand Fleet in an almost unsurpassed act of seamanship.
Out of the gloom, Scheer and his fleet were greeted by battleships from one end of the horizon in to the other. They opened fire and a hail of shells fell upon the Germans. They had a choice. Be annihilated or do a 180 degree turn. Again, with astonishing seamanship they did the latter. However, by making the next right choice, Jellicoe moved the fleet between the Germans and him. He ‘crossed the T’ again.
The Germans again did a hand break turn. Jellicoe then made the most controversial of decisions. He was warned of torpedo threat so turned away, not to the Germans. They essentially escaped. Should he have turned towards? Given what he stood to lose (literally the war) he called it right.
The High Seas Fleet escaped. During the day and especially night there were a lot of confused, major and minor actions. HMS Invincible was blown up (magazine explosion), SMS Pommern, an old battleship, was torpedoed and lost with all hands. Sinking, German Battlecruiser Lutzow was scuttled. Others were also lost or damaged. 14 British ships and over 6000 men were lost to 11 German and about 2500 men.
The Germans made it home. Many of their ships were damaged, some heavily. Seydlitz, Von Der Tann and Derfflinger in particular were pretty much wrecked. So who won? The Germans claimed victory first and celebrated it right up to 1945. The British admitted their losses, unlike the Germans and the Royal Navy was vilified. That narrative holds a lot of support because of material losses to this day. But it isn’t correct.
The Royal Navy were still at sea, still in control and ready to fight. The High Seas Fleet were not and never ventured out again. It knew it couldn’t win. Germany starved. Literally. It was the biggest factor in their defeat. In 1918, the Germans sailed their fleet to Scapa Flow in surrender flanked by RN ships.
Rusting with mutinous crews, that was the true result of Jutland.
They had ‘assaulted their jailer, but were still in jail’ as a US newspaper so neatly put it. Jellicoe was unfairly maligned during and after the war. Churchill described him as the only man who could lose the war in a day. He did the opposite.
[Post edited 1 Jun 8:30]
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Thread | Oh dear Donald
at 07:16 29 May 2025
Interesting court ruling in the good ole USA:
https://news.sky.com/story/us-trade-court-blocks-donald-trump-from-imposing-swee
From BBC:
‘Trump has not yet commented directly on the court ruling but has posted memes on his Truth Social platform that may allude to the announcement. One black and white image, apparently created with AI, shows the president walking towards the camera with the words "HE'S ON A MISSION FROM GOD & NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT IS COMING".Another image of a billboard says "PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING".’
This battle isn’t going to go away any time soon. He will have to take power away from congress, muzzle the judiciary and control the press. He believes he is god’s deliverer. Even his media platform is called social truth. He is never wrong and surrounded himself with flunkeys that will only ever agree with him. Those who don’t are enemies to be disposed of.
Donald blowhard is as nutty as squirrel sht. [Post edited 29 May 7:28]
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Thread | Dynamo Eighty Five Years Ago Today
at 17:48 28 May 2025
Eighty five years ago was the second full day of the evacuation of Dunkirk and the day Belgium surrendered. The timeline is attached:
https://www.britannica.com/story/timeline-of-the-dunkirk-evacuation#:~:text=Evac
The story of the fall of France, Holland and Belgium is an astonishing one. Shambles, chaos brilliance, incompetence, bravery, humiliation between 9 May and 22 June 1940.
Dunkirk was just one event, but it has entered into British legend (Dunkirk spirit etc) and deservedly so. The evacuation was unparalleled before or since. A real life miracle engineered by extraordinary people including the 40,000 French who defended the perimeter so bravely.
The significance of the rescue of 338,000 British and allied soldiers is simple to quantify. Without it, the war would have been lost.
If you visit the IWM in Lambeth you will see an insignificant little boat called Tamzine. It took part and I always pay it a visit and have a quiet moment. Silly really, but sometimes insignificant objects really do carry meaning.
The films tend to focus on the little ships when in reality most people were rescued from the Mole. But that’s ok, everyone played their part and that’s the point. |
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