Bell's Banter 2022

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by terence

Name one of his troop who have kept to the words they spewed out in order to get their dream job.??

Our local politician Tom Tugendhat always gives a proper answer to a question that you ask him, and doesn't try to answer with a question like most do. He always replies to my wife's emails so they are not all rubbish.
A few more like him would certainly help

[The Fat Clerk]

Our local MP is Dr Luke Evans and is very approachable, doing a fine job in his constituency of Hinkley & Bosworth.
The Wife had a 45 minute phone call with him just before Christmas and he's done everything he said he would.

Just proves there are still some decent politicians.

[Mike Harte]

There are, without doubt, a number of exceptional and outstanding constituency MPs; that is not really the problem. Their problem is, if they want to go further up the political ladder, they usually have to follow the party whip when votes really count in the House. And that can often be contrary to how their majority of the constituents feel.

But they tend not to be those that "lead" the country and they are the ones that are our current headache. As I wrote previously, Johnson has been bowing to the wishes of his friends and his current wife. It was she that insisted that her friend, Allegra Stratton was given the job of being the official spokesperson for the government, a new position to copy the system that they have in the States. So they built, at huge cost (millions), a new press facility in Downing Street where she would address the media through a sound system manufactured and supplied by Russia. Why they couldn't have found one manufactured in the UK, I have no idea.

And then, of course, there was the Patterson affair. And on it goes.

[midgetman]

Our MP is a mate of the PM and parachuted in. Bought a house in the constituency etc. Massive, solid Tory seat here.

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[Mike Harte]

By the way, I meant to add the fact that the new media briefing room, built at huge expense paid for by the tax payer, was mothballed and has never been used except for the training sessions, one of which we saw where they were laughing and joking about themselves breaking Covid laws about socialising during a "wine and cheese" bit of a do.

[Gerard C]

May be interesting only for John on here, but "le salon Rétromobile a été reporté aux dates du 16 au 20 Mars". So what?

Back to our politicians, sorry for the interlude!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

May be interesting only for John on here, but "le salon Rétromobile a été reporté aux dates du 16 au 20 Mars". So what?

Back to our politicians, sorry for the interlude!

Worth checking but I think that clashes with the Goodwood MM.

[justracing]

Goodwood MM 9th/10th April 2022

[Peter Mallett]

Phew!

[Gerard C]

Worth checking is OK but worth going (Paris I mean) is another story…

[midgetman]

I was musing today as I drove along a route that we used in my childhood. In those days (1971) we had a Jaguar XK150. Bit of a shed IIRC, and it could only have been 10-14 years old. It was quite an achievement that it managed to do "the ton" and needed a lot of fettling. And rust repair.

I was driving along in my daily driver, an 18 year old MGZR that could (theoretically of course) give an indicated 125mph and cruise at 100.

Older, faster, better condition. Who says cars have got worse over the years?

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[bauble]

Originally Posted by midgetman

I was musing today as I drove along a route that we used in my childhood. In those days (1971) we had a Jaguar XK150. Bit of a shed IIRC, and it could only have been 10-14 years old. It was quite an achievement that it managed to do "the ton" and needed a lot of fettling. And rust repair.

I was driving along in my daily driver, an 18 year old MGZR that could (theoretically of course) give an indicated 125mph and cruise at 100.

Older, faster, better condition. Who says cars have got worse over the years?

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

Just uglier.

[Gerard C]

My tow car is an old Bimmer 5 Series, may be 2004 or so, emissions are lower than a twelve more recent Pug, it performs way better and has more features. Buuuut is some areas like Paris and suburbs the old diesel powered cars are illegal at least for day use! Paris Mayor is a woman totally nuts and guess what? She's now competing to become our next prez! No chance at all if I'm asked!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Sorry Grant, if you don't agree with me 100% aren't you supposed to issue death threats and blame Michael Massi?

Or have I been reading Twitter too long?

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Twitter?

What's that?

FWIW, some years ago a US University, wishing to show the power of computing using the then newly powerful processing of GPU cards (Graphics Processing Unit for "video" type high speed and large data volumes that enables some of the remarkable Gaming graphics to be created and led to the surge in "bitcoin" processing), got hold of about 6 billion tweets from Twitter covering about 15 months in some parts of the world.

They then put online a GPU driver (so they said) data analysis tool based on a search engine so show how fast and powerful internet searching had become and how much faster it might become in the future.

I played with it for a while, being in the data analysis game, and was impressed with what it could do and how it was linked to mapping systems.

It quickly become clear that one could select a tweet and then find all of the tweets created by that user over any period in the months covered by the data set. One could also get the location from which the tweet was sent if, as most people probably do, the mobile devices' location was being broadcast.

This one could easily discover the places that the person holding the account frequented. So spotting a home or workplace was often quite simple since the stats counted the number of tweets per location. Find the location of Google maps, add Street View and much could be discovered in seconds with very little effort.

I have never worked out whether there could be any real benefit to the account holder offered by having the data held on the Twitter servers.

Clearly other interested parties may, in some situations, find the information very valuable.

In the mapping systems there are margins of error to be considered but the level of accuracy seemed often to be accutrate to building level.

The GPS in a mobile phone can place the phone to within about 1metre. Better if military or using highly accurate commercial systems as do farmers and Race Logic! Even mobile phone "mast" triangulation can pinpoint a phone to within a similar distance in many cases. I would guess that a 5G user in a city could be tracked instantly to within a couple of centimeters.

One danger is that, should one do something that angers people and they decide to pay one a visit, the map data might be wrong. So the message transmission point may be accurate but the map data, as is the case for my street in Google maps, for example, suggests incorrect house numbers. So if people start to visit you unexpectedly and without reason claiming you said something they don't like when using social media, one may want to have some suggestions about which house they should really be visiting!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Our MP is a mate of the PM and parachuted in. Bought a house in the constituency etc. Massive, solid Tory seat here.

So was North Shropshire, at least in recent times until the by-election.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

would address the media through a sound system manufactured and supplied by Russia. Why they couldn't have found one manufactured in the UK, I have no idea.

Are there any systems manufactured in the UK and owned by a UK company?

I'm sort of surprised that Russia would be a source of such equipment - especially for such a potentially sensitive location as Downing Street.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by midgetman

I was musing today as I drove along a route that we used in my childhood. In those days (1971) we had a Jaguar XK150. Bit of a shed IIRC, and it could only have been 10-14 years old. It was quite an achievement that it managed to do "the ton" and needed a lot of fettling. And rust repair.

I was driving along in my daily driver, an 18 year old MGZR that could (theoretically of course) give an indicated 125mph and cruise at 100.

Older, faster, better condition. Who says cars have got worse over the years?

A pal of mine has a ZS of similar vintage. Terrific condition. Sounds great.

Odd, though, that despite its advantages and the MG badge it will never be likely to match the value the XK150, if it has survived in almost any condition, would command today. Must be almost as rare and also very unlikely to be the subject of a specialist "Replica" project outfit.

My SAAB will have been on the road for 20 years come April. Probably easily capable of another 20 if one could still get parts.

I doubt any current modern ICE vehicles will be allowed to last that long even if they may have the theoretical capability to do so. (Which I doubt given the reliance in complex electronic systems and new laws that will likely mean they cannot be adapted when the supply of original fit parts expires.)

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by grantp

Are there any systems manufactured in the UK and owned by a UK company?

I'm sort of surprised that Russia would be a source of such equipment - especially for such a potentially sensitive location as Downing Street.

I would hope that there are still UK sources for the sound system failing which I would have liked them to have used one manufactured by one of our allies.

As to being surprised by it being supplied from Russia, just look at how much influence many Russians have with Conservative MPs and ministers. Many of them receive financial backing from them via their UK "based" service companies which are often used to launder money that comes out of Russia, usually because they are pals of their country's leader.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by grantp

I'm sort of surprised that Russia would be a source of such equipment - especially for such a potentially sensitive location as Downing Street.

Dont ask who's running the softwares used by our "Défense" and who sold and maintains the computers! In this matter we should be able, if not obliged, to run our own systems. Just in case… But when economy of scale preveals, common sense cant exist…

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I would hope that there are still UK sources for the sound system failing which I would have liked them to have used one manufactured by one of our allies.

As to being surprised by it being supplied from Russia, just look at how much influence many Russians have with Conservative MPs and ministers. Many of them receive financial backing from them via their UK "based" service companies which are often used to launder money that comes out of Russia, usually because they are pals of their country's leader.

I could understand if No. 10 use Russia for cheap Vodka when partying but had no idea they were likely candidates for Studio-grade broadcast technology in preference to other suppliers from more aligned countries.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by grantp

I could understand if No. 10 use Russia for cheap Vodka when partying but had no idea they were likely candidates for Studio-grade broadcast technology in preference to other suppliers from more aligned countries.

I'm afraid that modern politicians, and possibly those in the past too, don't realise the irony in these matters. This is why MI5 has just had to warn our current MPs and aspiring politicians that a Chinese National that has provided then with funding which they believe originated with the Chinese government, and that she is actually gathering information for the Chinese government.

You would think that they would have known better and been briefed about these things, especially after the very recent experiences that they had with politicians in Australia being funded by another Chinese operative.

[Gerard C]

Looks like your # 10 brought Mata Hari back into business but in a chinese version!

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

You would think that they would have known better and been briefed about these things, especially after the very recent experiences that they had with politicians in Australia being funded by another Chinese operative.

Good article about that here, Mike
:https://www.theage.com.au/national/d...22-p53d1l.html

[terence]

Couldn't have come out at a better time could it, takes some pressure off Boris and at the same time exposes Labour for what they are.

[grantp]

It does seem that, according to him, at least one MP has been dealing with the lady mentioned and even employing her son as his "diary manager" for about a decade, all of that time reporting back to "the authorities", including MI5 (if I read the article correctly.)

Interesting timing of what seems to be non-news for anyone in the loop.

Anyone outside the loop is probably wondering what the big deal might be in these days of "globalisation".