Day 94 Fishy

Notes for new readers - as this is a diary the first entry is the last, so you get to know 'who done it' before the crime is committed! This is a pain but can't be helped. After a week of entries the scrolling will stop and if you want to venture further click on 'OLDER POSTS' and read until you get to the first entry 'The Day Before Day 1

Delivered the scrubs today but there are no more to do at present so I have a holiday!

It's so hot today and it seems it my get hotter tomorrow so I will have to walk Jasper either early or late. Today we stopped and watered the beds and bought some ice creams.

Watered and weeded the front garden in the evening. I shall have more time now that I don't have the scrubs to do.

This evening I watched 4 Alan Bennett Talking Heads. Priceless! "I was still a bit dubious, then I saw he had cycle clips on so I let him in." I look forward to the rest. We did several of them in CADS years ago - I particularly remember Lloyd in "A Chip in the Sugar" and Peg, I think, in 'A Woman of No Importance' who had to perform during a heavy rain storm which made such a racket on the tin roof of the theatre she had to sit silent until the rain passed. 

Just received an email from Julia to the effect that the volunteers have produced 2283 items altogether so my effort was a mere drop in the ocean.

Snippet from the News

The Government has been heavily defeated in the Lords over demands to put environmental sustainability at the heart of post-Brexit fishing policy.

Peers backed a cross-party amendment to the Fisheries Bill aimed at making this the prime objective to prevent over-fishing and damage to the marine environment.

The Bill enables the UK to become an independent coastal state post-Brexit, with foreign fishing boats barred from fishing in UK waters unless licensed to do so.

But independent crossbencher Lord Krebs said that, as currently drafted, it did not guarantee the protection of fish stocks and the wider marine environment.

Lord Krebs, a former chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said whenever there was a trade-off between short-term economic and employment considerations and long-term environmental sustainability, short-term factors nearly always won.

“This is what has led to over-fishing and long-term damage to the marine environment in many of the world’s fisheries.”

He said this was Parliament’s “big chance to get the management of our fisheries on a genuinely sustainable footing and avoid the mistakes of the past”.

Backing the move for the Opposition, Baroness Jones of Whitchurch said sustainability of Britain’s fishing stock must be the “number one priority”.

The Lords approved the amendment by 310 votes to 251, majority 59, in the report stage debate on the legislation and peers voted remotely and in Parliament.

Snippets from Facebook

I like this sort of news!

Boris Johnson is "talking rubbish" when he claims that no country has a functioning track and trace app to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking as he unveiled his plans to ease lockdown, the Prime Minister made his claim just hours after the German government revealed 10 million people had downloaded their app.

It came after ministers binned their own plan for a "world-leading" app using their own proprietary technology to instead focus on one using technology from Google and Apple with a more proven, though not perfect, track record.

Questioned on the app in the Commons by Labour leader Keir Starmer, Mr Johnson said: “He mentions track and trace and isolate and yes it’s perfectly true that it would be great to have an app, but no country currently has a functioning track and trace app.

But Labour MP Chris Bryant posted on his Twitter account: “So guess what? Boris Johnson was talking rubbish. Lots of countries have tracking apps.

South Korea's tracking app, which is more intrusive than most, has been praised as being a key part of the country's success in tackling the virus.

And while no app is perfect, their existence proves the technology can be implemented successfully.

Yesterday it was revealed that contact tracing app abandoned by the Government had so far cost the taxpayer nearly £12 million.

Health Minister Lord Bethell revealed the bill for the high-profile project as the administration was accused of "sheer incompetence" and a "lack of humility" following the U-turn.

The criticism came after the Government ditched plans to develop its own NHSX app and instead look to software created by Apple and Google to build it.

"Isn't it time the Government just accepted the fact that we can't develop our own app and go straight to adopt the available interface... behind the off-the-shelf, decentralised app now in widespread use and introduced in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark where they appear to be working well."

Snippets from Twitter

SONG

Random Photo

This is a Large Black Longhorn Beetle. You can see why. We used to get them in France - actually we used to get a lot of weird insects in France much to my dismay as apart from butterflies I am not a fan.  They are a serious pest as they bore holes in trees.

TOT ZIENS! Fly the  Flag! Stay in Europe!