REMOVED John Bercow’s Private Secretary From His Official Portrait

Members of a Commons committee face a tough decision about the future of a portrait of former Speaker John Bercow after an independent panel found that he bullied staff

A Commons committee has a difficult decision over what to do with a portrait of former Speaker John Bercow after he was found by an independent panel to have bullied staff and been blameworthy of abuse of power and authority.

John Bercow has been banned from Parliament for life. However, the picture is still hanging in the ‘Corner Room’ of Speaker’s House.

John Bercow has been found guilty of 21 claims relating to his behaviour as Speaker from 2009 to 2019.

The Mail On Sunday revealed that one possibility being considered by the Commons Works of Art Committee is to undo John Bercow’s approach when he commissioned the painting in 2010.

He’d agreed that Kate Emms, his private secretary and the first woman in the role, should be portrayed alongside him by painter Brendan Kelly. However, after Kate Emms resigned and made many allegations of bullying and harassment against John Bercow, the then Speaker allegedly insisted she was removed from the painting.

When the portrait was unveiled, at a cost to taxpayers of £37,000, Kate Emms had mysteriously disappeared from the canvas, and John Bercow is said to have demanded that she be painted over with her replacement, Peter Barratt.

It was claimed to a newspaper outlet that insiders had suggested there were many more acts aside from the upheld bullying claims and said they called John Bercow a psycho behind his back.

Another official claimed John Bercow had shouted at Black Rod, Lt Gen David Leakey: ‘Get out of my fing office, you fing little toff.’

Former coworkers told of his fist banging, spit flying rages that were made worse if people cried in front of him.

One said: ‘We used to call him ‘Psycho’ behind his back,’ while another added, ‘He’s a narcissist… in total denial.’

After the portrait was unveiled, the artist said he’d endeavoured to capture the day to day reality of the Speaker.

Other options for the committee, according to a source close to current Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, include consigning the picture of the discredited ex-Speaker to a basement backroom, adding an illustrative trigger warning sign or slapping a badge of shame on the frame.

Another solution was to restore Emms to her original place, a relatively straightforward procedure since the top layer of an oil painting can be stripped back.

One MP said: ‘We should return Kate to the portrait. That would be the ultimate revenge.’

And that it was a difficult decision which will be reached this week.

John Bercow evidently has little man’s disease, an inferiority complex, spiteful mouth, and small of mind and stature, and he’s undoubtedly vertically challenged, and if anyone should be removed from the picture, it should be John Bercow himself because he’s an extremely hateful little man with narcissistic tendencies, and thank goodness he wasn’t clever enough to achieve some sort of power over foreign policy.

John Bercow should have been booted out ages ago because he’d definitely gone over his sell-by date and his role as Speaker was rotten and had gone rancid.

There were numerous people who knew he was a bully, so how did he manage to remain in his position for so long? And he might have been smug then, but he’s certainly not smug now!

Of course, he was a real legend, but only in his own mind, and how the mighty fall, and what goes around, comes around, and this man has what is called Napoleon Complex because he’s a bossy and belligerent man which he uses to overcompensate for being physically short, and I’m surprised he didn’t receive a smack in the face.

Michael Gove Says Millions Of Britons Are Open To Accepting Ukrainian Refugees

Under the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ program, sponsors who provide rent-free accommodation for at least six months will receive a monthly fee, regardless of how many refugees they take in.

Michael Gove has suggested that millions of Britons could be ready to host Ukrainian refugees with a £350 a month government ‘thank you’ as he said the first arrivals should be next week.

The Cabinet minister pointed to surveys revealing that as many as one in 10 people were willing to put up people escaping from the Russian invasion, but Michael Gove who recently divorced, revealed he wasn’t yet sure whether he personally would be able to contribute. Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that he’s planning to be a host.

Michael Gove

The comments came as Michael Gove revealed that 3,000 visas have now been granted for Ukrainian refugees, with the new sponsored route due to launch this week.

Under the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme, sponsors who provide accommodation rent-free for a minimum of six months will receive a monthly fee of £350 from the government, however many refugees they take.

Individuals, charities, community groups and businesses will all be eligible to bring those escaping the Russian attack of Ukraine to safety.

Sponsored refugees will be granted three years’ leave to stay in the United Kingdom and be allowed to work and access public services.

Michael Gove said the United Kingdom stands behind Ukraine in their darkest hour and encouraged people to join the national effort to support refugees.

He said he hoped tens of thousands of people will be accommodated in Britain as part of the new scheme as Europe buckles under the weight of its biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.

He said that people can register their interest on Monday and matching will be taking place from Friday and that he would hope that in a week’s time they’ll see the first people coming here under the scheme.

But asked whether he personally would be willing to host refugees, Michael Gove told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday that he was in the process of seeking to see what he could do.

Michael Gove stressed there will be money available for local authorities to support new arrivals and that there would be just over £10,000 per person available to local authorities.

Then there would be extra payments for those children who are of school age and who need to be accommodated within the educational system.

A United Nations official said that more than 2.3 million people have escaped the conflict in Ukraine and another 1.9 million have been displaced within the country.

Does this mean that every MP with a second, third and fourth home et cetera is going to use them to help with the Ukrainian Refugee crisis?

It’s fantastic that people want to help, but let’s be realistic about this, how on earth is the NHS, schools et cetera going to cope with the additional millions of people?

Can the UK actually afford this sum of money when they still have Afghans in hotels waiting to get housed, and the amount of money must be astronomical?

Perhaps Boris Johnson could invite them all over to Westminster, just tell them to bring a bottle!

And how many refugees is Michael Gove going to take in? But it doesn’t really matter because nobody is being forced to do it, or will MPs be exempt because of data protection reasons because they work from home and handle constituents’ details?

Let’s face it we have no idea of the background of these people, so why would we have them in our homes?

And a year ago we weren’t even allowed to socialise with people we actually knew, including family members, and now they’re asking us to have strangers into our home that we probably won’t even be able to communicate with.

Thin Air Creates Diamonds

By pulling CO2 from the atmosphere, Aether has created diamonds made from the air.

It may seem like a thing of fantasy, but a luxury jewellery startup has created diamonds that are made of thin air.

Aether pulls carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the air to make its lab-grown gems, which are physically and chemically identical to those that are mined.

The company bills them as carbon-negative diamonds by claiming to extract 20 tonnes of CO2 from the air for every one-carat diamond sold

It bills them as carbon-negative diamonds by claiming to remove 20 tonnes of CO2 from the air for every one-carat diamond sold.

That’s what earned Aether the B Corp Certification as the first and only diamond producer with that title.

Its gems are unlike other lab-grown diamonds because these are created from petrochemicals like methane.

Aether is now planning to use $18 million (£13.75 million) in funding to ramp up the production of its diamonds, including a wholesale programme that has just been launched.

Ryan Shearman told Forbes that he became immediately intrigued when he heard about this new direct capture technology created by a company in Switzerland that strips harmful CO2 out of the air, and he wondered if they could take all this abundant, harmful carbon that’s warming the world and turn it into a beautiful form of carbon that warms the heart – diamonds.

He said that they were addressing the lab-grown market in a new way since there’s some level of emissions and environmental impact from the fossil fuel production used for lab growth and that it gets down to both mined, and lab-grown diamonds taking sides about which harms the environment less. Aether turns that paradigm on its head and that we would be benefiting the planet.

The company uses a reactor to remove CO2 from the air.

Its clever technology then follows the hydrocarbon synthesis, which means that captured CO2 is synthesised into the hydrocarbon feedstock needed for growing diamonds in a chemical vapour deposition reactor.

The next step is diamond growth, where the hydrocarbon raw material is fed into specialised chemical vapour deposition reactors that are powered by 100 per cent clean energy.

Once the diamond crystals are completely developed, experts cut, polish, and add the final touches to the gems.

Aether hasn’t revealed any cost details of its four-step diamond making method, but it does save 127 gallons of fresh water which is typically used per mined carat, along with not wasting so much energy because the gems require only half the energy consumption of mined diamonds.

Shearman said Aether was proud to be the architect of the world’s first gem-quality diamonds from the atmosphere.

These gems are evidently not fake diamonds, they’re just grown in a lab, and seemingly identical to mined diamonds – the same way an IVF baby would be grown in a lab, but we wouldn’t call it a fake baby. Although, of course, babies aren’t diamonds.

Some people want natural diamonds, some don’t care. The same way that some people want to eat 100 per cent organic food and others don’t care if it’s modified.

However, these man-made gems are worthless because they’re not rare and will be controlled to inflate the value, but then is a mined diamond a man-made belief that it’s actually worth something because it comes from the ground?

Diamonds seem to be deliberately controlled to sell them as being rare, although they’re plentiful all around the world in so many different countries, but hype sells, and it sells because people want a nice quality rock as long as the cost is within reason, but many diamonds are not worth the overpriced sticker tag that is merely various degrees of carbon.

However, with crime being what it is, who wants to be sporting such an expensive diamond? It’s far too dangerous and there are fakes out there that just look like the same thing, that’s if you don’t look at it too closely. But the truth is it’s not worth wearing a natural diamond because criminals are on the prowl all the time.

How Secure Are Your Passwords?

We all think hackers won’t crack our own passwords, even if they’re easy ones with only a few characters, but just how easy is it for someone to break into an online login?

According to new research, anything with six characters, regardless of whether numbers or symbols are included, can be cracked instantly.

The same goes for anything that’s seven or eight characters but made up of just numbers or lower case letters, but the news doesn’t get much better for any eight-character combination.

In fact, they can all be guessed in approximately 39 minutes according to US cybersecurity company Hive Systems, which is based in Richmond, Virginia.

On the flip side, the way to ensure that your password isn’t cracked for some 438 trillion years is to use 18 characters made up of numbers, upper and lower case letters and symbols.

Of course, that would take you quite a while to input every time.

And research suggests that a more manageable 11 character password featuring the same alternative features would be cracked in about 34 years.

Hive Systems made a colour coded table for 2022, demonstrating how safe user passwords actually are.

The company said its data was based on how long it would take a consumer budget hacker to crack your password hash using a desktop computer with a top tier graphics card, and that if you use the same password on numerous sites, you’re in for a bad time.

The firm also discussed hashing, a technique that protects stolen passwords, and how hackers get around the one-way algorithm.

In the context of passwords, a hash is a scrambled arrangement of text that’s reproducible if you know what hash software was used.

For example, if the word ‘password’ is hashed using MD5 software the output would be 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99.

Passwords you use on websites are held in servers as hashed instead of in plain text like ‘password’ so that if someone views them, in theory, they won’t know the actual password.

In the given example for ‘password’, the hacker would only see 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99.

It’s impossible to reverse this hash to produce the word ‘password’, but what hackers do is make a list of all the combinations of characters on your keyboard so they can then begin hashing them, but finding matches between this list and the hashes from the pilfered passwords, hackers can figure out the user’s real password, which in turn lets them access to your logins for various websites.

In the end, people end up having so many passwords, usernames, verification codes, and some people would never remember them, so many have them written down in a book, especially those that are in their 60’s and 70’s and aren’t immortal, and then, of course, you have the phone where you phone and have to give passwords for that, or verification questions such as your hometown, first dogs name, mum’s maiden name and school.

Quite honestly this is all getting beyond ridiculous, especially when companies want us to all go paperless, which makes using a bank or utility company so difficult to use. There were the days of the cheque book but now everything’s online.

Now they’re saying that your password can be hacked in an hour, which is absolute garbage. The reality is that most only allow three tries before they force a 30-second pause for another attempt, which means that a brute force attack isn’t going to be completed in an hour. I’m not saying that it can’t be done at all, but it would take much longer than that.

Genetically Modified Male Mosquitoes Will Be Released In California And Florida

Billions of genetically engineered male mosquitos will be released in California and Florida over the next two years, as part of a mission to kill off biting females.

Oxitec, based in Oxford UK, is a biological pest control development firm, that’s produced the edited version of the flying insects to fight mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue, yellow fever and Zika.

Male Aedes aegypti mosquitos don’t bite humans, but females do, and so the genetic modification causes females to die off shortly after being born.

The project has been cleared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the first wave is expected to be released this year, although it isn’t clear exactly when this will happen, as it needs state regulatory approval in Florida and California.

It isn’t likely to be a problem in Florida, as the state played host to a trial last year that saw millions of the same type of Oxitec mosquitos released in the Florida Keys.

Not everyone supports the idea, including Friends of the Earth, which describes it as a destructive move that’s dangerous for public health.

The EPA cleared the technology, giving Oxitec an experimental use permit that permits them to release 2.4 billion edited mosquitoes between 2022 and 2024.

In total two billion will be released in California, and another 400 million in Florida, where millions are already circulating through the mosquito population.

The male insects have been genetically altered to express the protein tTAV-OX5034, which results in the death of any newly born females.

The species, Aedes aegypti, isn’t native to either California or Florida but has started to become an intrusive nuisance, bringing multiple human diseases.

It’s been known to spread Dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever.

The idea behind the modification was to kill off any female offspring before they reach adulthood and are able to go out and bite humans, spreading these diseases.

This would also work to decrease the population of the intrusive species, further hindering disease transmission, although that’s still theoretical.

The altered species have been put through numerous trials and tests, to ensure the modification won’t harm ecosystems or humans.

Dr Robert Gould, President of San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, said that once emitted into the environment, genetically engineered mosquitoes couldn’t be recalled, and that rather than forging ahead with an unregulated open-air genetic experiment, they’d need precautionary action, transparent data and proper risk assessments.

But how can we possibly know all the consequences of this action?

We can understand the logic and as humans, we have one constant that never alters, and that is that no human is perfect, and we should never allow ourselves to believe that any vaccine, cure or solution was intended for every human, and that scientists should never risk overconfidence in themselves when making a cure, that it could if overlooked cause a human being to die or be seriously ill, and to create something is great, but never overlook that it’s not flawless and that they could be risking human life because nobody should lack common sense, particularly scientists because nobody is perfect and errors can and will be made.

And is it actually our role to gender identify mosquitoes?

In certain parts of the US, people are continually swatting mosquitoes, sometimes killing hundreds at night in their living room, and they’d daren’t have the windows open, but they just come through the doors anyhow, and people swat them all, regardless of gender.

We shouldn’t be meddling with nature, and after COVID I wouldn’t imagine that many people want anything that’s modified being released on them.

PIG GRUNTS Are Translated Into Emotions By Scientists

Scientists say they’ve translated pig grunts into emotions for the first time, in a possible breakthrough for monitoring animal wellbeing.

Researchers trained an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm with 7,414 recordings of pig noises, collected throughout the life phases of 411 pigs, including slaughter.

The algorithm could potentially be used to create an app for pig farmers that see whether the animals are happy just from the noise they’re making.

The research was led by the University of Copenhagen, the ETH Zurich and France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).

Study author Dr Elodie Briefer at the University of Copenhagen said that they’ve taught the algorithm to decode pig grunts. Now they need someone who wants to develop the algorithm into an app that farmers can use to improve the welfare of their animals.

Researchers say the algorithm can decode whether a particular pig is experiencing a positive emotion (happy or excited), a negative one (scared or stressed) or somewhere in between.

The recordings were gathered from both commercial and experimental scenarios, either associated with positive or negative emotion, from birth until death.

Positive situations include, for instance, those when piglets nurse from their mothers or when they’re united with their family after being separated.

The emotionally negative situations included missed nursing, short social seclusion, piglet fights, piglet crushing by the mother, castration and handling and waiting in the slaughterhouse.

In experimental stables, the researchers also created different mock scenarios for the pigs, designed to produce more nuanced emotions in the centre of the spectrum.

These included an arena with toys or food and a corresponding arena without any stimuli.

The researchers also placed new and unfamiliar things in the arena for the pigs to interact with.

Along the way, the pig’s calls, behaviour and heart rates were monitored and recorded when possible.

The researchers then examined the audio recordings to determine the positive situations and emotions from the negative ones.

As already revealed in earlier research, there are more high-frequency calls from pigs such as screams and squeals in negative situations.

At the same time, low-frequency calls such as barks and grunts occurred both in cases where the pigs experienced positive or negative emotions.

With an even more detailed study of the sound files, the team found a new pattern that revealed what the pigs experienced in specific situations in even greater detail.

I would guess that translating these cries at the abattoir would surely send chills down your spine, but then I suppose you have to harden your heart because you can’t let your feelings get between us and the bacon you’re eating, but then hardening your heart to the natural world and the animal’s plight keeps you blinkered and morally primitive.

Can you picture driving up alongside a pig transportation lorry, looking at the pigs with their little snouts sticking out, not knowing they were going to their impending death, quite distasteful when you think about it?

Although they probably know that something bad is going to happen to them because animals only feel fear in the moment because they have no sense of tomorrow.

We should really consider this as we later cook pork chops for our tea!

And God help those scientists that translate the squealing those poor animals emit at the slaughterhouses just before they’re killed, it certainly won’t be fit for publication, and I certainly don’t think that being a farmer being able to talk to pigs would make slaughtering any easier, especially if you were telling them to be quiet before they were killed.

It’s A Virgin Birth!

Fatherless mice have been created in the lab using only unfertilised mouse eggs, in a move that could one day pave the way for creating one parent babies.

Virgin births, also known as parthenogenesis, have previously been seen naturally in birds, lizards, snakes, sharks, rays and other fish, but now scientists in China say they’ve achieved parthenogenesis in mice without any male genetic DNA.

Earlier endeavours in mammals have mostly been unsuccessful because of genomic imprinting, a process in which the parent of origin determines which copy of a gene is active.

Yanchang Wei and colleagues at Shanghai Jiao Tong University revealed that parthenogenesis is possible in mammals through a targeted technique that edits DNA methylation marks, which are chemical modifications that can change gene activity without altering the underlying DNA sequence.

The authors used the epigenetic rewriting approach to seven imprinting control regions in mouse oocytes, successfully altering DNA methylation in one copy of the gene but not the other.

The researchers said that the transfer of modified embryos into foster female mice then resulted in the generation of viable full-term offspring.

They wrote in their paper that following parthenogenetic activation, those edited regions displayed maintenance of methylation as inherently established regions during early preimplantation development, and it was said that the transfer of altered parthenogenetic embryos into foster mothers resulted in significantly extended development and finally into the generation of viable full-term offspring and that the data showed that parthenogenesis could be accomplished by targeted epigenetic rewriting of multiple critical imprinting control regions.

However, only one live offspring survived to adulthood, accentuating the necessity for further investigation and improvement of the technique used in an endeavour to enhance its success rate.

However, the outcomes indicate that parthenogenesis could be achieved in mammals through the chemical DNA modifications used by scientists.

According to the authors, the feasibility of parthenogenesis in mammals opens up possible avenues to agriculture, research and medicine.

Parthenogenesis is a technique that effectively forms clones of the parent since the embryo acquires genetic material from only one individual, and one of the most typical methods for this form of reproduction is for the egg to be fertilised by a still immature egg cell that acts almost like a sperm.

Usually, parthenogenesis occurs in lower plants and invertebrate animals like ants, wasps, or bees. However, it’s been noticed in some species like reptiles, fish and even birds who would typically reproduce sexually.

Some people will probably find this horrifying because this is meddling with nature, and it appears to be wrong on every level, and why would they want to do this? And I hate to spoil the narrative but most women actually do like men and children do need fathers.

Although some women’s experiences of men have sometimes proved otherwise. Some women are going their separate ways and feel that it’s easier to go it alone, and is it really what we really need now, more fatherless children?

And just because scientists can do this, doesn’t mean that they should do it, but of course, feminists will love this.

They should be leaving those mice alone and they should be leaving humankind alone, the world doesn’t need any more kinky fuckery with our DNA, and then madness should stop right now before these mad scientists create havoc.

Two parent-children must have evolved for a reason, but things are evolving all the time, some with good consequences, others with bad consequences, and will this be the extinction of men?

This is almost like Jurassic Park, the movie. Scientists were so obsessed with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.

Britain’s Energy Watchdog Urges Families To Turn Down The Heating By One Degree

Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol

The world’s energy watchdog has stated that families in Britain should turn down their heating by a degree to cut down Western reliance on Russian gas.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said its ten-point plan would cut gas imports from Russia to the European Union by more than a third in the coming year.

On the Yamal peninsula in the Arctic Circle is the Bovanenkovo gas field, the source of liquid natural gas that Britain pays billions for

It said that the average thermostat in European buildings is set at 22C. By adjusting thermostats by 1C, the West would save about 10 billion cubic metres of gas within a year, if implemented alongside other measures including a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies.

Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said that nobody was under any illusions anymore and that Russia’s use of its natural gas resources as an economic and political spear showed that Europe needed to act quickly to be ready to face considerable uncertainty over Russian gas supplies next winter.

The watchdog has also advised the West not to sign any new gas agreements with Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom, or to renew expiring contracts.

Its ten-point plan, published on Thursday, also proposes setting a minimum obligation on energy companies to store gas, speeding up the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps, and seeking alternative gas supplies from elsewhere in the world.

Gas prices have skyrocketed to record levels in recent months after Vladimir Putin dramatically reduced supplies to Europe ahead of the invasion of Ukraine.

Barbara Pompili, minister for ecological transition for France, holder of the EU’s revolving presidency, said that more than ever, getting rid of Russian fossil fuels and of fossil fuels, in general, was essential and that what was at stake was both the need to accelerate the fight against climate change, and as they could now see, the short term energy security of the European continent.

The European Commission will use the IEA’s proposal to inform its own plan of action on energy in response to the war, to be published next week.

Kadri Simson, the EU’s energy commissioner, called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a watershed moment in the shift away from gas.

According to Unison, UK imports of Russian gas have doubled since 2018 and despite an embargo on Russian owned ships anchoring in British ports, two carrying it are expected to arrive at the Isle of Grain in Kent this weekend.

The most foolish thing that Britain did was to stop producing our own energy to use other country’s energy, now we’re paying the price for being stupid.

But let’s get to really where the blame lies. Our short-sighted government virtue signalling, telling the world how good we are at reducing our energy input, but of course, Boris Johnson and his eco wife won’t be affected by the cost as they get everything for almost nothing, and it’s extremely easy making decisions for other people when it doesn’t actually affect them.

And don’t they realise that numerous people already have their heating down as low as possible because of the price growth, and there are many people who can’t afford to turn their heating on at all. It’s amusing how people that have no money troubles can always find a way to make you sacrifice and suffer.

People are giving, while the government take, take, take, while MP’s give themself a pay rise and claim their energy bills on expenses while telling OAPs that the triple lock and a five pounds a week pay rise was unaffordable on a state pension of £9,000. What is it that George Orwell said? “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

Four Hours After A Man Stole A Car, A Baby Boy Is Found

An 11-month-old baby boy who was missing for almost four hours in Melbourne’s south after a man robbed an automobile with the infant sitting inside has been found safe and well.

The baby had been inside the rear of a white 2013 Toyota Rav 4 before it was stolen from Putt Grove in Keysborough at 2.10 pm on Tuesday.

Police say the child’s mother had briefly left the car while leaving the engine running before an unidentified man hopped into the driver’s seat and took off with the baby still on board.

The baby and the Toyota were subsequently discovered in Cranbourne at approximately 5.40 pm and a man was arrested.

Inspector Fiona Halford told reporters that she could safely say that they had located the child safe and well and that he was in the process of being returned to mum and dad, and that she just couldn’t thank the public enough, as it was a member of the general public who had identified police of the location and subsequently police attended that location and found the child safe and well.

Police earlier released pictures of a man they wanted to speak to and a car similar to the one stolen.

Investigations are ongoing and a 46-year-old man is helping police with their inquiries.

The man in question must have realised his blunder at some stage, but the mother and her son have now been miraculously reunited after the opportunistic robber took off with the woman’s car and her 11-month-old baby who was inside.

The baby was returned to his mother and father after a member of the public spotted the allegedly stolen white 2013 Toyota RAV 4 on a suburban street.

Harrowing CCTV footage of the moment the unidentified man takes off in the 4WD shows the baby’s distraught mother running after the automobile as it speeds away, but now the man allegedly driving the car has been arrested.

Commuters Are Furious As 24Hr Tube Strikes Cripple The Capital

London’s Tube strike sparked outrage across the capital, with commuters fighting at busy bus stops and accusing cab-hailing services like Uber of scamming the public by adding an extra £40 to the price of fares.

The Underground will be crippled all day because of a walkout by thousands of employees, suspending services on all lines except the Overground, DLR and TfL Rail.

About 10,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have walked out for 24 hours, and will do so again on Thursday, in a row over jobs, pensions and conditions.

The RMT said its members were solidly backing the industrial action, which was causing travel disorder across the metropolis.

Images showed enormous crowds waiting at bus stops at stations like London Victoria and London Bridge, while tube trains at Stanmore lay inactive.

Tensions boiled over as passengers attempted to push their way to the front of queues and pile onto buses, with fights breaking out in the carnage against a background of heavy rain.

More cars on the road saw traffic grind to a standstill, which only added to the woes of commuters desperately trying to get to work on time.

Uber appeared to increase its prices substantially as a result, while there were reports of cab drivers pitting customers against each other by cancelling some trips in order to pocket higher fares elsewhere.

Meanwhile, there was added anger after the private hire colossus Uber was accused of scamming the public by charging some £40 more than the price of a usual fare.

Commuters were earlier being alerted of excessively busy services during rush hour amid the widespread Tube Strike which has led to disruption on all Underground lines.

The announcement was delivered over speakers to passengers waiting in the rain at Finsbury Park Station in north London for a Thameslink service at about 8.30 am.

Despite clearly higher than usual numbers of customers on the platform at Finsbury Park, relatively few were on the platform at St Pancras International for Thameslink trains. The Thameslink service was encountering delays of several minutes for most trains.

South London commuters blasted the walkout, which comes as many return to the office after the COVID pandemic.

Accountant Tim Hallan, 32, from Dulwich fumed that it was extremely frustrating and that it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. He said that he’d only just started commuting back into central London after the office opened back up following the coronavirus.

A bunch of people said that we should have driverless trains, but on some lines, we’ve already got them but that doesn’t mean that they would still run, and when the whole world is automated, who’s going to be paying their pensions?

Meanwhile, people are dying in Ukraine and the best that British workers can do is go on strike. Of course, we don’t live in Ukraine and we’re not getting bombed, well, at least, not yet, and they whine about everything and don’t realise that it’s the union bosses that come out on top with their big bonuses and subscriptions that the workers contribute to.

Can you imagine if our nurses, doctors and cancer nurses and doctors decided to strike? Even when they were given a 1 per cent pay rise they still got up and went to work and endangered their lives throughout the pandemic.

And just when the country’s trying to get back on its feet, you can always count on the train drivers to put a spanner in the works. Everyone’s suffering right now, not just the train drivers!

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