http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ en-us tdaw@cix.co.uk 2013-06-09T06:18:29+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010562.html Top Tory in new Lobbygate row | The Sunday Times THE Tory MP in charge of scrutinising new energy laws has been caught boasting about how he can use his leadership of a powerful Commons committee to push his private business interests. Tim Yeo told undercover reporters — posing as representatives of a firm offering to hire him — that he was close to “really all the key players in the UK in government” and could introduce them to “almost everyone you needed to get hold of in this country”. He said he could not speak out for them publicly in the Commons because “people will say he’s saying this because of his commercial interest”. But he assured them: “What I say to people in private is another matter altogether.”... Yeo denies any wrongdoing...... 10562@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Greenery 4 2013-06-09T06:18:29+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010561.html BBC News - Cheese maker warned against supplying Gloucester cheese rolling A cheesemaker has been told by police she may be liable for legal action if she supplies Gloucester's famous annual cheese rolling. The traditional event involves revellers chasing a 7lb (3kg) wheel of Double Gloucester down Cooper's Hill. Diana Smart, who makes the cheese for the event at her Churcham farm, said she had been warned by police about her responsibilities as organiser. She said: "It made me feel pretty angry... there's not a lot we can do," Mrs Smart, 86, who has made cheese for the event for 25 years, said police had warned her she could be regarded as responsible if anybody was injured.... 10561@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Banstibation 1 2013-05-24T06:59:28+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010560.html BBC News - Eurosceptic MPs attacked by business leaders Those calling for the UK to leave the EU are "putting politics before economics", business leaders have said. Leave aside any flakiness of their economic argument - some things like democracy, freedom and self-determinism are "politics" that outweigh the "economics" - at least to some of us..... 10560@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Europe 4 2013-05-20T06:52:42+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010559.html Concert at the Kings Arms in All Cannings, Wiltshire It is going to be stunning yet again - don't miss it. Last year:... 10559@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ the castle 2 2013-05-17T17:30:22+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010558.html BBC News - Police were called to a science fiction convention at the University of East Anglia, No, not between rival climate researchers arguing over hockey sticks... "Trouble flared at the fourth Norwich Sci-Fi and Film Convention at the University of East Anglia, organised by Norwich Star Wars Club. Police were called after members of the rival Norwich Sci-Fi club arrived to get autographs from two Doctor Who actors at the event on Sunday." Jim Poole, treasurer of Norwich Sci-Fi Club, said there was a history of rivalry and disputes between the two clubs, which both hold their own conventions in the city. Mr Poole said he was wearing a club top and his fellow member was dressed as the fifth Doctor, as played by Peter Davison. Mr Poole said two other members of his club, one dressed as the 10th Doctor and the other as Judge Dredd, had waited outside the venue. "This wasn't a fight between Star Wars fans and Doctor Who fans with lightsabres and sonic screwdrivers drawn," he said. "It's a bit sad and pathetic. We're all in the same boat." Was anyone dressed as a bristlecone?... 10558@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Greenery 4 2013-05-16T06:33:12+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010557.html BBC News - Osborne: G7 agree to target tax evasion and avoidance The G7 group of industrialised nations have agreed that there must be collective action against tax evasion and avoidance, the UK's finance minister has said. Chancellor George Osborne said after the talks that it was "incredibly important" that firms and individuals paid the tax they owed.... 10557@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ UK Politics 6 2013-05-11T19:00:14+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010556.html #GeorgeMonbiot: Again and again, govt science advisers are misrepresenting science for political ends: http://t.co/617pyLL4kR Couldn't have put it better myself....sorry, he isn't talking about climate change where of course there is no misrepresentation for political purposes by the Moonbat side...... 10556@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Greenery 4 2013-04-29T22:47:51+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010555.html Let us remember that when the Argies invaded the Falklands no-one in the international community thought we would fight. We were a sad little declining ex-imperial ruler. Even Ronnie was very wobbly on it, hoping for some sort of consensus compromise. As the Task Force sailed he was only convinced it wasn't just empty sabre rattling when it was pointed out the the Blessed Margaret had accepted with equanimity the deaths of Bobby Sands (Daily Mirror Slimmer of the Year 1981) and his now forgotten runners up. If she was prepared for those British Subjects to die and not give in she was prepared to fight. She fought and proved we still had balls. This gave Ronnie the cojones he needed to defeat the Evil Empire, with her help. Without these preliminaries it would not have happened, and why if the Nobel Peace Prize had any meaning to it, hollow laugh, she should have received it annually for as long as she was alive.... 10555@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ UK Politics 6 2013-04-19T06:34:14+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010554.html Mr FM and I are meeting in the City tomorrow to doff our caps as the funeral procession goes by, and then we will turn back time to the eighties and have a proper city lunch; a table at Rules has been booked, though I expect we will swing by some old favourite wine bars on route so it will be a afternoon meal. It is only fitting.... 10554@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ UK Politics 6 2013-04-16T20:53:27+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010553.html BBC News - Met Office three-month forecast was 'not helpful' The Met Office has admitted issuing advice to government that was "not helpful" during last year's remarkable switch in weather patterns. Between March and April 2012, the UK experienced an extraordinary shift from high pressure and drought to low pressure and downpours. But the Met Office said the forecast for average rainfall "slightly" favoured drier than average conditions. ...the Met Office chief scientist Julia Slingo.....says last year's calculations were not actually wrong because they were probabilistic.... 10553@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Greenery 4 2013-03-29T07:20:11+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010550.html (larger) “What a fucking liberty”. - Iain Dale Hacked Off have a lot to answer for, for it is they who have driven this ridiculous agenda. A group of jumped up, rich celebrities who pretend to be fighting the cause of Milly Dowler, the McCanns and Christopher Jefferies, but in reality are only concerned with covering their own backs and doing their best to ensure that tabloid newspapers can never again put them on the front pages.... 10550@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ UK Politics 6 2013-03-19T08:34:28+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010549.html The fructose timebomb: it’s sweet drinks that are making our children fat | The Times Dr Robert Lustig, scourge of the sugar industry, is over from America to attend a symposium on junk food and mental health. ...... Lustig is not an easy man to dismiss ... “He’s a scientist. He’s entirely evidence-based and he’s scary — but we need to be scared,” Charlie Powell, campaign director for Sustain, says.... he set out his argument in Fat Chance: The bitter truth about Sugar. Now, he has a taste for campaigning. Lustig is taking a master’s at law school to learn how the courts brought down the tobacco industry. “It’s going to happen to sugar too,” he says. “And I want to use my science to be part of it.” According to Dr Lustig, the Darth Vader in our daily diet is fructose — the molecule that makes all things sweet, whether that’s white sugar or brown, honey, maple syrup or agave nectar. .... And what about diet drinks — with artificial sweeteners and no fructose at all? (This is the week designer Marc Jacobs launches his limited edition Diet Coke cans to celebrate 30 years of the drink that fuels the fashion world.) Here, Lustig declares himself an “agnostic”. “We don’t have the data,” he says. “Until we understand how sweeteners impact our energy consumption and our propensity for chronic diseases, how can I recommend it?” He does point out that the large-scale switch to diet sodas has not impacted obesity rates. “This is a theoretical construct, but it’s possible that when you put something sweet on your tongue, your body gets ready to metabolise it, your pancreas gets ready to release insulin — and the sugar never comes. What do you do? Go and find something sweet to eat?” Other than abstaining from juice or fizzy drinks, Lustig advises everyone to exercise and eat more fibre (palaeobiologists believe cave-dwelling Man ate about 100g of fibre a day. Our median consumption is 12g). “I’m not the food Nazi,” he says. “If you make sugar safe and rare, once a week, as a treat, your liver can keep up. ... Did you spot it? Diet drinks with no sugar are as bad for obesity as sugary drinks, therefore it is the sugar that is bad for us....... 10549@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ nanny 3 2013-03-15T08:18:29+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010548.html BBC News - French 'invasion force' lands at Gosport A French "invasion force" will land on a Hampshire beach on Saturday. The 200 soldiers, 43 vehicles, four helicopters, two landing craft and a catamaran, are taking part in a training exercise at Gosport. The French landing helicopter dock Tonnerre and anti-submarine warfare destroyer Georges Leygues arrived at Portsmouth Naval Base on Friday. A French navy spokeswoman described the first steps of "Mission Jeanne d'Arc" as "unique". She said the navy was practising a major invasion on the British mainland to test both "amphibious and joint operations". "Once the vehicles and soldiers disembark, using the landing craft and helicopters, the troops will continue with instruction activities, driver training, live fire exercises and assault course on Browndown," she added. To the beaches my friends, we have work to do! Remember the last time... 10548@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ England 4 2013-03-09T07:20:23+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010547.html Podcast available; if your usual emetic is not working..... 10547@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ Greenery 4 2013-02-28T15:53:06+00:00 http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/archives/010546.html Oscars protest by visual effects workers over Life of Pi | Film | guardian.co.uk Several hundred people reportedly congregated outside the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles ..... A protest by visual effects artists; that will be three people digitally copied to become a crowd, won't it?... 10546@http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/ The World 3 2013-02-25T06:33:40+00:00