I have seen a few fake £1 coins in the UK over the years, pretty poor copies they were too, but new counterfeiting gangs are getting more adept at fooling the public, look at the examples above, one is fake one is genuine,
record numbers of fake £1 coins in circulation could force the Royal Mint to scrap the entire denomination and reissue it, there are now about 41million counterfeits, or one in every 36 coins in current use, it is thought that the proportion of fakes has tripled in the last decade, not that it is any consolation but other countries have had the same counterfeiting problem occur with there coinage,
the five rand coin in 2004 was reissued after taxi-drivers and shopkeepers in South Africa started to refuse to accept them, fakes were just two per cent of all coins, compared with 2.81 per cent with the British £1, shoppers tend to only realise they have a fake coin when it is rejected by a parking meter or vending machine, which contains devices to monitor whether the metal composition of the coins are correct, however, at least half the fakes are now so good they pass these tests, so will the £1 coin be replaced?
Robert Matthews, the former Queen's Assay Master at the Royal Mint, the most senior coin tester in the country, said: 'If the number of fakes keeps increasing at this rate, there will have to come a point when the Treasury makes the decision whether to remint or not.' as one commenter noted, 'bring back pounds shillings and pence! decimal money is foreign and was forced on us by Europe, if the good Lord had wanted us to use metric money he would have given us ten fingers and toes!' well yes,
just out of interest the real coin is the one below.
but with the world cup just around the corner I see no harm in nailing your colours to the mast to show some support for our lads, but Taxi drivers in Kent have been warned by Canterbury City Council that they could have their licences suspended if they fly the St George’s Cross, in Kent, licensing chief Roger Vick denied being a killjoy, He said, ‘We are not being killjoys, there is a degree of health and safety here as well,' planet earth to Roger Vick, planet earth to Roger Vick, you are being a pompous killjoy and I hope voters remember you for being so totally unpatriotic next time round!
the old one,
the new one,
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was being forced to draw up a hit list of embassies and consulates around the globe it will close to save money, Foreign Secretary David Miliband ordered the stationery make over above, a glossy brochure which accompanies the re brand claims that the new identity – featuring the Royal Crest and a new typeface for the words ‘Foreign & Commonwealth Office’ – will ‘subtly represent the ‘‘Power to influence”’,
the new FCO brand came into effect last month with all embassies and other posts around the world issued with a ‘brand tool kit’ including a lists of do’s and don’ts on how to use the new logo, now wait for this a 80-page pamphlet accompanies the kit, yes 80 pages of print to show embassiies how to use the logo,
the image consultants also designed a simplified version of the crest for use on the FCO website – removing the Royal motto ‘Dieu et mon droit’ – ‘God and my right’ – and the motto of the Order of the Garter ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense’ – loosely translated as ‘Evil be to him who evil thinks’, according to the FCO, its new brand represents six words: ‘Empowering, Insightful, Principled, Persuasive, Strategic and Intelligent’,
who makes this stuff up? look at the logo, does that say all of that to you?
a spokesman for the FCO said: ‘This will actually save money over time – for example, getting rid of the need for individual embassies to hire design teams when they produce publications or exhibition materials,’ he said the department had ‘engaged’ a ‘design consultant’ he did not disclose the cost of the new stationery needed across the department’s global operations, so every embassy in the world will have to throw out it's old stationery and print the new logo on it's new paperwork, still the new logo does seem a bit of a bargain, it only cost us taxpayers £80,000!
well it was not that, it was when I got to the bit in the article that said, a recycling officer demonstrates how to put a tenth container - a biodegradable liner - into the slop bucket in the councils on line film of how to separate your rubbish that I thought it was April 1st again!
in what must be the understatement of the year, officials in Newcastle-under-Lyme in North Staffordshire anticipated trouble when they introduced the nine-bin system last month, just so all home owners in the UK know what is coming, the containers include a silver slop bucket for food waste, which is then tipped in to a larger, green outdoor food bin, a pink bag for plastic bottles, a green bag for cardboard, and a white bag for clothing and textiles, paper and magazines go in blue bags, garden waste in a wheelie bin with a brown lid, while glass, foil, tins and empty aerosols should go in a blue box, with a grey wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste,
I hope you got all of that, make a mistake and you will be sorry, compulsory recycling is commonly enforced by bin police who can impose £100 on-the-spot fines for breaches like overfilled wheelie bins, extra rubbish left out, or bins put out at the wrong time, if people do not pay the fines, they can be taken to court, where they face increased penalties of £1,000 and criminal records,
a couple of thoughts occurred to me, in Europe do all households have to put up with this madness, or is it just in the UK? also in a high rise block of 40 or so flats or apartments does each flat have too have 9 bins, if they are communal and one of the bins is contaminated is the fine levied on all of the dwellings? finally how can it be more environmentally friendly to send round 3 or 4 different lorries a week to collect the separated waste on different days? just thinking out loud, oh well off to empty my rubbish, no need to sort it, all in the same bin 40 baht a month (about 85 pence in the UK), 3 collections a week.
long version, the Government wasted £71million of taxpayers money to comply with a 'bizarre' EU metric rule forcing motorcyclists to break the speed limit during their driving test, a damning new report by Parliamentary watchdogs reveals today, the scandal - which MPs have branded 'farcical' - began when Labour transport ministers signed up to a binding EU directive, it said that L-test manoeuvres, such as the emergency stop or avoiding an obstacle, must be carried out at speeds enshrined in European and now UK law - at 50 kilometres per hour,
being quick is because it is only open for today and tomorrow and a Fancy Fair originally held in 1852 below the river will be recreated at the nearby Brunel Museum, it was built between 1825 and 1843 by Marc Brunel and his son, Isambard, and was the first known to have been built beneath a navigable river, the Thames, the tunnel, which runs from Wapping to Rotherhithe at a depth of 75ft below the river's surface, quickly became a thriving shopping arcade and entertainment centre, above is a picture of as it is now,
but it was not without it's problems whilst being built, many workers, including Brunel, became ill because of the filthy water seeping through from the river above, the sewage from the river gave off methane gas which was ignited by the miner's oil lamps, causing fires underground, when the resident engineer William Armstrong fell ill in April 1826 from working underground Marc's son Isambard Kingdom Brunel took over at the age of 20,
the announcement this week of the first council to bring in a bin tax being Bristol City, it is presenting its scheme as a reward for recyclers, with cash payments to homes that leave out less rubbish and of course no penalties for those that leave out to much, (which as I hinted in the blog was a little bit over the rainbow),
well boy was I wrong! more than 2.5million homes now have wheelie bins fitted with microchips to weigh their contents, worse still no body knows about till now, yesterday, research by the Big Brother Watch campaign group showed that the use of chipped bins has quietly spread over the past year, in March 2009, a survey based on Freedom of Information inquiries showed there were 42 councils which used bins with microchips, but the latest check, also based on FOI requests, put the number of authorities with electronic bins at 68 - one in five of all those that collect household rubbish, Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch, said: 'The number of local councils placing microchips in bins is increasing, despite the fact that only one of them has volunteered to trial the Government's pay-as-you-throw scheme'
Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: 'Labour Ministers are secretly planning to roll out bin taxes across the country after the election if Gordon Brown can cling to power, 'The Government have already forced through bin tax laws and have been funding the bin technology to collect the taxes.'
to counter this a spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: 'There are no Government plans to introduce microchips in bins,'
however, in 2008 nearly 100 councils ran investigations into the contents of their residents' bins, in some cases to check on what rubbish they dump and in others to try to obtain information on their incomes and lifestyles, bit of a tricky one this one, I mean just who do you believe?
yes that is correct, if you clear the snow and ice from your own front door or the approach to your business and some one falls they can sue you! but if you leave the snow and ice and they fall they cannot,
the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health has warned its members that if people think an area has been cleared of ice and then fall over and injure themselves - they could take legal action, Michael Pepper, 68, asked Cambridgeshire county council to send him some grit which he offered to spread - but he was warned he could be sued if he did so, the council later claimed he had been given the wrong advice,
but government whip Lord Davies of Oldham explained during a House of Commons debate: "If people totally clear away all snow and return the pavement to the situation it was in before the snow landed, they have done an excellent job, if it is done in a less than complete manner and leaves ice, which is more dangerous than the original covering of snow, it may not be the local authority responsible but the householder for having dealt with the pavement."
John McQuater, president of the National Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, admitted: 'If you do nothing you cannot be liable, if you do something, you could be liable to legal action.'
money making idea number 27, wait till the council grits the road, cross it, fall over half way across, refuse to get up so an ambulance is called, get a 'no win, no fee' accident lawyer, (make sure you already have their number in your pocket) sue the council, retire! what a crazy land the UK has become.
Albert Stewart appears to be a pleasant easy going guy, so in the 33 years that he has been on the same round he has tried to help out, taking the occasional extra bag of rubbish rather than have a householder finned £1,000, but after being spied upon by the council he has been moved to a new round some 8 miles away,
he commented, 'I’m really annoyed and upset about this, I’ve been on the same round for 33 years – I’ve seen babies born, go to school, grow up and have babies themselves, they weren’t just people I took rubbish from – they were my friends too, I’ve had lots of people coming up to me saying they miss me,'
Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: ‘This case is a sad indictment of Britain,' how sad this story is, 33 years of doing the same job, in all weathers, I just hope the good folk of West Lancashire remember the treatment dished out to Albert when the council elections are due.
Martyn Jarman and the 1934 classic car he was given for his 21st birthday were forced apart when he had to raise money for his wedding, but Mr Jarman, now 72, and the rare open-top British Salmson he sold in 1961, have been reunited, the colour has changed and the car cost 500 times the £20 his father paid for it in 1958, but a delighted Mr Jarman said of the car: ‘She’s fantastic, I can’t believe I’ve got her back',
the story begins when Mr Jarman fell in love with the 1466cc hand-made machine after seeing it in a car park near his childhood home in Godalming, Surrey, ‘It had been abandoned there for about a year,’ he said, ‘I mentioned it to my dad who told me not to worry about old cars, but he then went and tracked down the owner and gave it to me, I was lost for words,' a few years later he sold the car to help towards getting married,
fast forward 50 years, He discovered it was back on sale in the British Salmson Owners’ Club newsletter and paid £10,500 for it, it has just 29,314 miles on the clock, I just love stories like this one, VGP 750 where are you now?
it is a new game called, 'spot the bin that will not be emptied!' dustmen have been banned from emptying wheelie bins if the lids are open by only a quarter of an inch – in case rubbish spills out and injures them, many of the bins cited in complaints by householders were packed with a fortnight’s rubbish for the first collection after the Christmas break, but in complete disregard and contempt for the people that pay their wages householders were told to take excess rubbish to the local tip,
but this was described as an impossible task for elderly and disabled people rendered housebound by snow, Bill Gough, a 54-year-old office manager, confronted the collectors when they refused to empty his bin on Tuesday, ‘I’d stamped on my rubbish to get it as flat as possible but the lid was still a little open,’ he said, ‘I’d managed to wheel it down to the bottom of my driveway without any spillages and was shocked when a binman told me they couldn’t empty it because the lid was more than quarter of an inch open, I thought he was joking but then he got his measuring tape out and showed me, they said they had no choice for health and safety reasons, all I’m asking them to take away a few bits of extra wrapping paper – not dispose of nuclear waste,'
Grandmother Doreen Stubbs, 66, said: ‘The binmen were totally obnoxious and swore at my son when he asked why they hadn’t collected the rubbish, there was no talking to them, they were like the Gestapo, if little old ladies can drag their bins then surely men, who we pay to do their jobs, can use a bit of common sense and compassion,'
Mark Wallace, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance pressure group, condemned the council’s ‘petty decision’ for me Grandmother Doreen Stubbs, 66, says it all, ‘The binmen, could of used a bit of common sense and compassion,' but that's Coventry City Council for you.
on the Isle of Sheppey the place there is called Warden Point, if you do not know how to read a tide table call the coastguard first and they will tell you when to collect, i.e. when the tide is out, they always were most helpful in those days, I hope the same is true now,
any way, I had never given much thought about venomous dinosaurs until the species Dilophosaurus was portrayed in the film Jurassic Park as spitting venom — there were until recently no fossil records to support it, but now in a case of fact supporting fiction, a feathered predator that lived 125 million years ago has been revealed as the first-known venomous dinosaur, which paralysed its prey with poison in a similar way to some snakes, Sinornithosaurus millenii, a dinosaur about the size of a turkey, had grooved fangs for channelling venom and a pocket in the upper jaw that probably held venom glands, scientists have discovered, but you will not find one of those in the London clay at Sheppy!
but if you do go collecting you will find sharks teeth, crabs, lobsters, fish vertebra and many gastropod, (snails), brachiopods (bivalves, mussells) also suprisingly palm seeds, it was hot in these parts 51 million years ago, good hunting!
the train company as some form of compensation had given the passengers a free soft drink, but after the delay Chris was feeling a bit peckish, and there it was, a First Great Western egg sandwich, so he bought one, or at least tried to, but it was to no avail, health and safety you see,
he might choke on it, was the reason given, Chris explained that he was not trying to get a free meal and was happy to pay, but the steward again told him that he could not sell him a sandwich, the reason given? if the train has to be evacuated you could choke to death on the sandwich.' Mr Haynes, a bar manager himself, said: 'I've never, ever heard anything so ludicrous in my life, there was a queue of people behind me and they all looked shocked.' the good news was that the train arrived eventually at Paddington Station only two and a quarter hours late,
not to self, when traveling on trains in the UK bring own food!
you employ two 'bin police' to make sure residents are recycling, cost? only a tad under £100,000, bargain! the so-called 'waste advisers' will visit households to check that all recyclable material is going in the right bins, I am sure those sacked will get a warm comforting glow knowing how wisely the Tory-controlled Test Valley Borough Council in Hampshire has spent the money their jobs gave them,
Council leader Ian Carr admitted the decision was controversial, but said the move was necessary, 'This is very controversial, but we need to re-ignite the people's desire to recycle,' he said. 'The council's recycling rates have to improve',
in the past twenty or more years I have constantly said it so here it goes again, recycling in a first world country does not work if you take into account the costs of land, buildings, equipment, wages and transport costs, it is cheaper to make new glass than melt down old glass if you take the previous costs involved, same as paper, same as metals, only in third world countries does it make sense, my opinion of course but I have yet to see figures to prove me wrong.
in fairness to the council they did come up with this excuse, the council said the the £91,000 was part of a £318,000 grant it received from DEFRA between 2005 and 2007 when it introduced alternate weekly collection of rubbish, but forgot to spend during that time! I wonder what other sums of money have been 'forgotten?'
so a TV screen will show video of a bonfire at the event, this is to commentate the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament by Guy Fawkes in 1604, every year hundreds of thousands of families in the UK go to bonfire nights to see the burning of the 'Guy' and watch firework displays, the health and safety officials acted swiftly to stop a problem which occurred 5 years ago when some one threw a firework into the bonfire,
organisers at Ilfracombe Rugby Club say they were put off having the real thing by the 'mountain' of paperwork and regulations set by council bosses, officials at the authority said that to have a bonfire they would require five qualified fire marshals and metal barricades to keep onlookers at a safe distance,
Amy Collins, 26, said: 'The whole point of Guy Fawkes night is to watch and smell a real bonfire. I doubt Guy Fawkes would have been able to blow up Parliament with virtual gunpowder.' Zoe Payne, 31, added: 'If I want to watch TV I'll stay in and watch EastEnders.'
yes it has taken 5 long years for health and safety to think this one out, what a load of killjoys there must be in Devon's health and safety executive.
health and safety dogsbodies ruled that heavier modern materials must be used, result? it was to heavy to fly, the original first all-British triplane triplane was built by Salford-born Alliott Verdon-Roe in 1909,
Mick and Jay were going to have an afternoon out so they dropped off Mass and Precil at 388, also Anchisa, Mike and Riza called in,
in no time at all food was on the go, the girls had all walked down to the market and bought everything they needed then Diana cooked fish and chips for Mike and myself, the house was full of chatter, so for Mike and myself it was turn up the volume! after they had left the girls were still chatting away so I decided to put the headphones on and play with the computer, then I got more than a bit tired so I went off to bed at 2.30 in the morning leaving the girls still chatting, heaven knows what they were talking about they started at 4.00 in the afternoon!
Sandra Burt listen to a radio, but of course that was breaking the law, the Performing Right Society and told they would have to pay an £80 annual fee to keep the radio on in the shop, fair enough, so the radio went, so Sandra started singing to herself and anyone else that was in the shop, no harm in that I would have thought, I have even sung a few lines myself whilst working away, but,
like a breath of fresh air in UK politics, a ruthless independent audit looked at all three main parties that have shamelessly ripped off the tax paying public over many years, but in a complete disregard for public outrage, senior backbenchers threatened mutiny as it became clear that Sir Thomas Legg, the retired civil servant trawling through their claims, is retrospectively applying tough new rules, leader of the government of Great Britain, Gordan Brown has been order to pay back £12,415.10 he received between 2004 and 2009, which in what some would see as an admission of guilt he has done so,
but others with their collective noses in the trough have not, indeed to their eternal shame, some 108 MPs have announced they are quitting Parliament and have little or nothing to lose from challenging the expenses audit, sources predicted that several would take legal action rather than repay money they see as rightfully theirs, labour MPs were said to be forming a fighting fund, contributing £2,000 each, to dispute the findings, so caught for stealing and not paying it back they are forming a fighting fund, whilst you might argue it is a retrospective law, it is still the law and nobody, including MP's are above the law,
all I can say is, 'Sir Thomas hound them down, take them to court, and make them pay the money back, to the people of Great Britain, please!'
