Strandlife

The first happening was and is the attempt by Microsoft to distribute an update for Windows. This evidently contained and error or errors and caused mayhem amongst the Windows using world. This did not directly affect this blog because it runs on Linux Mint, but for those trying to travel and relying on computer systems running on Windows it got difficult. One such was our son, who, taking advantage of a small window in his work schedule decided to pay us a (literally) flying visit from the western USA. He has actually arrived in UK now but crossing the American continent and then changing aircraft to cross the Atlantic was quite nerve wracking.

Meanwhile, we noticed that our neighbour who was out and about in her car on Friday morning had gone out int he afternoon leaving her garage door up as she usually does, and which remained up until we went to bed. It was still up this morning, Saturday, so we began to make a few enquiries to see if anyone knew what had happened to her. It transpires that she was in a road traffic accident somewhere between Castle Douglas and home yesterday and is currently in the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. Her daughter from Galashiels came by and said her mother had had a blow to the chest and was being given morphine to combat the pain. But she also seemed tot think that her mother might be discharged later today.

A rainy day – there’s something new !

Our garden maintainer was outside pruning large lumps of shrub off the hedge opposite our house, which he then cut up and put in our black bin. Tomorrow is bin collection day, so later we went out to tie up the bin liner so that when the bin gets turned upside down by the refuse lorry the whole bag comes out. If we don’t do this the contents are liable to go into the wagon, but leave the now filthy liner still in the wheelie bin.

Th Postie brought large A4 envelopes in the new all paper, glued together style. The best way to open these is to cut one end or edge right off with scissors and the extract the contents, some of which will be attached to the inside of the envelope by the aforesaid gluing process. Such is progress, all in the name of being green.

Clifford the Tesco man arrived on time at midday and delivered our weekly food supply. Getting it from his boxes into our bags and then into the kitchen and the fridge and cupboards is surprisingly exhausting for Oldies like us, so it merits and sit down and a snooze afterwards.

We hurled ourselves out of our respective beds at the ungodly hour of 8.00 am (I was a hero and did my hurling at 7.30 am and got washed and dressed there and then). The reason for all this madness was that today our cleaning lady was due and we feel we’ve got to be up and doing when she comes, and the house not too untidy. Cleaning up for the cleaning lady may seem a bit counterintuitive, but, there you go. She duly arrived on her electric bike and gave us our two hour’s worth. She has applied for a job, and got one, at a local food preparation firm so we don’t quite know how she is going to combine her factory work with her domestic jobs.

Then it was my turn to set forth to the Health Centre for my monthly blood test which is done by the Health Care Assistant. I noticed on her computer screen that it is classed as a “full blood test”. The results usually take about a week to come back so this time next week we will be ringing up to see where my haemoglobin has got to. It goes down a bit every month and they have set a figure of 80 as the lowest they will permit and if and when it reaches this I am to go and have a blood transfusion.

We then went down into the town and stopped at the baker’s and stocked up with goodies and things for lunch. My “thing” was a bridie – they do very good bridies, well packed with meaty filling and one bridie is a good lunch – as no doubt it was meant to be when eaten by the worker or farm labourer.

We have reclaimed our first floor . . .

If you pay taxes in the UK, your money is helping fund disinformation, division and conspiracy theories. Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson, and a host of other right-wing propagandists are benefitting from taxpayer-funded government support. A recent investigation from Byline Times revealed that the government is by far the biggest spender on GB News advertising.

Granted, it’s more subtle than the blatant state propaganda you’ll find at Russia Today or China Central Television. But THIS Conservative government is pouring OUR cash into a “news” channel that pumps out ugly propaganda to give the impression that this THIS government’s heartless, right-wing policies have widespread support.

A number of the channel’s flagship programmes are hosted by Conservative Party MPs and close allies. Their presence lends credibility to falsehoods and bonkers theories concocted to justify ill-advised and unworkable government policies…policies that are only supported by a very small minority of the population. It’s a textbook propaganda operation.

You’re probably wondering why the government would choose to pump our money into a channel that has been repeatedly investigated and reprimanded by Ofcom for spreading fake news and for presenting politicians as newsreaders. Here’s a clue: It’s owned by Paul Marshall, Dubai-based billionaire and Conservative party mega-donor. See it now?

We made clear in our Functional Democracy Goals report that the media is a key component of a working democracy. A free press is fundamental to the information environment that guides the decisions of voters and law-makers. This corrupt nexus of billionaires, government, and media companies is skewing the field on which our democratic debate plays out. That can’t be allowed to continue.

Functional democracy is impossible without truth, and truth is elusive without a free and fair information system. UK laws on media regulation – from newspapers to TV to social networks – have been neglected for decades and now fall woefully short of being fit for purpose. As with so many of our democratic safeguards, we are now paying a heavy price for that neglect.

Our report includes recommendations drawn from the work of seasoned press reform campaigners, HackedOff. Those recommendations show how we can begin to address the disrepair in the system. The first thing we must do is take press reform seriously. We must open our eyes to the dire state of the UK media environment and pick up where the Leveson inquiry left off. If we don’t, we will become an Orwellian state in which none of us has the information we need to make proper democratic decisions. (Read thereport for full details of our recommendations.)

Many British people believe that the UK has some natural immunity to authoritarianism and that our democracy is a given. It doesn’t and it isn’t. Democracy, freedom, and fairness only survive if enough good people are prepared to engage in the constant struggle required to maintain them. The right-wing ghouls over at GB News may have the advantage now, but by working together, by organising and mobilising, our movement, nearly 300,000 strong, will turn the tide.

Best wishes,

The Open Britain Team

Open Britain

To really understand the present day situation in what was once rather loosely called “Palestine” a sort of starting point might be the Balfour Declaration of 1917. And one needs to bear in mind that Declaration was made in wartime when the Government was under many pressures , and the Middle East itself was a tricky area with the collapse of the old Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Army being trained by German instructors. For more details Wikipedia is a good source of information at “Balfour Declaration“

Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rites of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours

Arthur Balfour

WCSP is short for West Coast Sea Products.

With thanks to boredpanda.com

One of the most obvious local industries is fishing, and in particular, scallop fishing or dredging. The vessel “Alcedo” is a scallop dredger belonging to West Coast Sea Products and you can see where the dredging apparatus gets hauled up at the side of the boat. In action, the derricks swing out like wings and the trawl is towed along from their outer ends – one trawl each side. The scallops are processed ashore and go all over the place to hotels and restaurants everywhere. They do how ever come up with other fish such as the Monkfish shown in the bottom picture – an ugly looking thing, but good eating.

From time to time a great pile of scallop shells appears on the quayside and then get loaded onto a vessel and taken away.

The pictures are taken from a West Coast Sea Products post on Facebook. There are many more photos on the WCSP web site – the fleet of vessels – and a gallery of all their activities, and others if you search around.

King Challenger pulls into KBT Harbour, 7.30 this morning (6 Feb 24), by Steve Roberts.