Areva have accumulated losses of €1.7 Bn. on constructing Olkiluoto 3 - Siemens want out ... European Pressurized Reactor in trouble

France's national nuclear company Areva has produced their FY 2008 results and revealed estimated accumulatedlosses of at least €1.7 Bn. on constructing Olkiluoto 3.

The 1600 MWe EPR reactor at Teollisuuden Voima Oyj's (TVO's) Olkiluoto site which was meant to begin operation this year is now expected to start in 2012. The joint Areva-Siemens contract was worth €3 billion when signed at the end of 2003.

In October Ava announced a 4th delay to the Finnish project — Europe's first pressurized nuclear reactor. The so-called European Pressurized Reactor is meant to eventually replace aging reactors whose designs date from decades ago - such as the one's planned for the UK by EDF.

Arbitration in the International Chamber of Commerce is underway between TVO and Areva . Proceedings are secret, but it is known that the Areva-Siemens consortium would like a schedule extension and €1 billion ($1.2 billion) in compensation and late payments, while TVO has said in letters that it considers itself entitled to a whopping €2.4 billion ($3.0 billion) in damages.

OL3 is the largest construction project in Finland and one of the largest worksites in Europe with over 4,500 site workers.

Areva also announced that Siemens wants out of their joint Areva NP reactor technology joint venture. By the end of January 2012 Areva must purchase Siemens' 34% stake, which it has valued at €2.05 billion ($2.61 billion) ahead of final negotiations. This sum was added to Areva's net debt which then jumped to €5.5 billion ($7.0 billion), although this is balanced by equity of €7.3 billion ($9.3 billion).

Apart from these problems with Siemens and TVO , Areva's business performed strongly, with its order book growing to €48.2 billion ($61.4 billion), up 21% on last year. Company CEO the beautiful Anne Lauvergeon said the group's performance in the current economic situation demonstrates "the robustness of the Areva business model." In the last year, Areva has hired almost 10,000 new staff.

Areva made a net profit last year of €589 million, down 20.7 % from €743 million in 2007, while sales rose 10.4 % to €13.2 billion.

Uranium prices slide

Uranium prices fell by 40 % last year and this hurt Areva's earnings resulting in drastically cutting, then suspending, uranium trading activities in the second half. The mine in in Canada, Niger and Kazakhstanand refine the product in France.

See article on Rand Uranium for overview of cuent world Uranium m arket and currentproblems.

2nd Transatlantic Bombers trial stopped

The 2nd trial of the 8 wannabe heavily MI 5/6/7/ infilated "Transatlantic" bombers re - started on Wednesday - the defendents were (above)
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, also known as Ahmed Ali Khan, 28, from Walthamstow, east London
Assad Sarwar, 28, from High Wycombe, Bucks
Tanvir Hussain, 28, from Leyton, east London
Ibrahim Savant, 28, from Stoke Newington, north London
Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, from Walthamstow
Waheed Zaman, 24, from Walthamstow
Umar Islam, also known as Brian Young, 30, from Plaistow, east London
Donald Stewart-Whyte, 22, from High Wycombe

A curious feature is that Donald Stewart - Whyte has been replaced as a defendant for Mohammed Gulzar, 26 from the previously suspendedtrial

The second trial was stopped On Friday afternoon.See Courtnews. February 27, 2009 ALI: TRANSATLANTIC TERROR TRIAL TO RESTART FOR SECOND TIME LONDON; HIGH WYCOMBE, BUCKS The trial of eight men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic jets collapsed for a second time today (Fri) after further problems with jurors. Last week the first jury was discharged for legal reasons after the case had been running for a day.

Curiously we can find no reference in any Press / TV to this decision over Sat / Sun.

A bad time to announce bad news.

The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. John Hutton): Before I begin my statement (yesterday about Ministers lying about rendition - he said ) , "I should like to pay tribute to the three soldiers from 1st Battalion The Rifles who died on operations in Afghanistan yesterday, and to the Royal Marine from 45 Commando who died yesterday from wounds received earlier this month."

Three soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Rifles, were on a routine escort operation in Gereshk district in Helmand Province on Wednesday in their weapon-mounted "WMIK" Land Rover which was blown up by either a landmine or a wire-triggered improvised explosive device.

Earlier the Defence Select Committee thrid report had been published s the hambles over the plans for equipping the army with troop moving land vehicles - the - Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) ...

The MoD's attempts to meet its medium-weight vehicle requirement have been a sorry story of indecision, changing requirements and delay. It is high time the MoD decided where its priorities lay

At our evidence session on 25 November 2008, we asked how the announcement at the end of October 2008 that 700 new armoured vehicles were to be procured impacted upon the FRES programme. CDM said that "there will still be a requirement for FRES; I am quite clear about that".We asked if the MoD knew what its requirement for FRES was. CDM told us that "I think we are pretty clear we know what it is"

92. Given the number of different armoured vehicles which have been procured for current operations and the different FRES vehicles which the MoD plans to procure, we asked about the MoD's strategy relating to armoured vehicles and, specifically, about the issue of coherency. To our astonishment, the Minister told us that "the coherence lies in having the widest possible suite of weapons for commanders in the field to choose from".

They concluded (bold type theirs)..

95. The FRES programme has been a fiasco. In February 2007 we concluded that the MoD's attempts to meet its medium-weight vehicle requirement had been a sorry story of indecision, changing requirements and delay. Two years later the story is, incredibly, even worse.

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "This report shows that the MoD is riddled with incompetence.(BBC)

"The government must make sure our troops have the equipment they need to do their job today and in the future."

Your Defence News a PR sheet from the MOD says today ...

The MoD today welcomed the House of Commons Defence Select Committee's report into Defence Equipment 2009. The report praises the impressive performance of DE&S (Defence Equipment and Support) in delivering equipment and supplies to two theatres in 'very challenging environments' and commends the UOR (Urgent Operational Requirement System) as 'highly effective' in meeting rapidly changing threats.

A good day to bury bad news

Amidst all the brou - ha - ha over Fred the Shreds modest pension, it was an ideal time for the clerk like John Hutton to clear up a minor misunderstanding.

A delightfuly sanitised version of events can now be told about how Ministers lied to the House of Commons.

MOD officials in 2004 were aware that 2 prisoners captured by UK forces in Baghdad had been handed over to US forces.The 2 prisoners were of Pakistani origin and members of Lashkar e Tayyiba, a proscribed organisation with "links to al Qaida".

Re classified as "enemy combatants" by US forces they were moved to Afghanistan because of a lack of relevant linguists (Pashtun speakers) necessary to interrogate them effectively in Iraq. Hmmmm.

Quote from Hutton"A due diligence search by US officials of the list of all those individuals captured by UK forces and transferred to US detention facilities in Iraq has confirmed that this was the only case in which individuals were subsequently transferred outside Iraq."

With a wonderfully straight face Mr Hutton told the silent and nearly empty and incurious House of Commons that said "inaccurate" information had subsequently been given to the Commons about UK-held detainees, based on the information available to ministers at the time.

Even though 2 Ministers had misled / mistated / lied to the House a review had ....". shown that brief references to this case were included in lengthy papers that went to the then Foreign Secretary (Jack Straw) and Home Secretary (Charles Clarke) in April 2006." An antique and well used ruse to slip inconvenient truths past a Minister.

"It is clear that the context did not highlight its significance at that point to the ministers concerned." You can be absolutlely certain that the "context did not highlight its significance" ....

However we are grateful that a member of the Special Frces involved in dealing with cases of rendition did acually reveal the truth a long time before the MOD did - who leally gagged him.

It was just 1 year ago that Ben Griffin then 29,who had left the British army in 2005 and sevred in Baghdad with US Delta forces was served with a High Court Order that meant he could be jailed if he makes further disclosures about how people seized by special forces were allegedly mistreated and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law.

The full statement from the dismal Hutton can be read at Hansard here,
26 Feb 2009 : Column 394 Records of Detention (Review Conclusions)

It is worth noting that the stateent was timed so ...."Madam Deputy Speaker (Sylvia Heal): Order. I appreciate the significance of the statement and the interest of Members, but the main business of the House is still to follow, so I ask for brief supplementary questions and a concise response." How unfortunate.

Anyway some members (Nick Harvey (North Devon) (LD): + Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con): ) did manage to get in a reference to the public remarks of Ben Giiffin and Blunt managed to quote into the record the remarks of BenGiffin .

“Throughout my time in Iraq I was in no doubt that individuals detained by UKSF and handed over to our American colleagues would be tortured. During my time as member of the US/UK Task Force, three soldiers recounted to me an incident in which they had witnessed the brutal interrogation of two detainees. Partial drowning and an electric cattle prod were used during this interrogation and this amounted to torture. It was the widely held assumption that this would be the fate of any individuals handed over to our America colleagues. My commanding officer at the time expressed his concern to the whole squadron that we were becoming ‘the secret police of Baghdad’.”

Even David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con): who forms the "Crumple Zone" of the libertarian wing which they have infitrated managed to make some disigenuous remarks.

" .... there are one of three explanations. First, the Government are deliberately turning a blind eye. I hope that that is not true. Secondly, possibly, the covert agencies are using deniability to operate outside the law. We hope that that is not true. Thirdly, there is a reprehensible lack of control of our agencies in their operations abroad."

Anyway the whole thing is nicely swept under the carpet, beautifully obfuscated and as John Majr might say ... a line drawn under it.

Konrad Dannenberg one of the last of the German rocket men who put Americans on the moon RIP

Konrad Dannenberg who died this week aged 95 was one of last of the 118 German rocket scientists, many ideological Nazis, who arrived on "Operation Paperclip" in Huntsville Alabama (visit the Von Braun Astronomy Facility, The Von Braun Civic Center) in a case of post war "special rendition" of prisoners.... and rocket parts , equipment etc.,

Trained at Hanover and fascinated by rocketry he ended up helping on the German WW II V-2 missile – built using slave labour – which the Germans used (with devastating success) to indiscriminately kill several thousand people in Europe.

About 1000 of these missiles were fired at the cities of London (see map of sites hit) and Norwich, while about 2000 more were fired at targets on the European continent.

Given top-secret clearance by the US Government , he worked with Wernher von Braun on US military weapons systems. When NASA was established in 1958, Dannenberg became a key agency leader: the deputy manager of the program that produced the Saturn V, the first rocket to send humans to the moon. The engine he helped design in the 1960s Marshall Space Flight Centerat remains the foundation for NASA's rockets. "His fingerprints are all over it," NASA exploration official Steve Cook told Forbes in 2007.

Dannenberg never publicly expressed remorse for the people killed by the V-2 he helped create, assigning sole moral responsibility to the Nazi officials who ordered its use.

The Huntsville Times report,family, friends and admirers filled the theater of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration Friday afternoon for a memorial to Dannenberg which, in the words of Ralph Petroff, was definitely not a funeral service - "This is a celebration of the life of this extraordinary man,".... "If there ever was a rocket scientist, he was a rocket scientist," Klaus Dannenberg said of his father.

Previous posts on Operation Paperclip - Reidel , Steinhoff , Braun etc.,

See FROM PEENEMÜNDE TO THE MOON By Konrad K. Dannenberg ... afascinating read . "This presentation will briefly describe the activities in the German Rocket Development Center in Peenemünde, and summarize the key factors that made the V-2 rocket an effective weapon. The Allied Forces showed, after the war, great interest in learning more about this new weapon and its military applications."

GM / Opel rescue looks increasingly slim as 60,000 EU workers strike - GM produce worst annual results ever for 2008

15,000 workers gathered at Opel's flagship in Rüsselsheim near Frankfurt. Throughout Europe they were joined by 60,000 workers at protests at 14 Opel factories across Europe.

IG Metall boss Berthold Huber (left- Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Audi AG since January 1, 2006.) with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Opel's works council head Klaus Franz all spoke at the rally. "There is only one single chance, and that is spinning off Opel and Vauxhall from the GM group," Franz told workers gathered at the plant. He had previously been quoted "There's no future with GM; we can only see any prospects with a divestment."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier who will be running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in general elections this September, attended the protest today , saying he was doing everything he could for Opel - he said that at least five European countries would need to cooperate in order to save Opel. Fat chance.

GM has also announced Q4 losses of US $9.6 Bn. (€7.5 Bn), a total of US$30.9 billion for the year - Opel lost US $1.9 Bn. in 2008. . GM say that they will cut 47,000 jobs worldwide with 26,000 from outside the US and close 5 more US factories. (BBC)

GM sales fell from US $46.8bn in 2007 to US $30.8bnin 2008 - and they have already received US $13.4bn-worth of federal loans since December 31.

Revenue at the 100-year-old company also took a tumble, plunging more than a third to $30.8bn from $46.8bn in 2007.Now they are bidding up for US $30 Bn, of federal funds to stave off bankruptcy

Berthold Huber, head of the union IG Metall, said of GM to Rüsselsheim protestors . ".. they have built models with the aerodynamics of a barn door and the weight of a small tank."

Levels of financial supprt required for Opel vary from €9 Bn to become totally independent from M. The federal government estimated that it would have to provide Opel loan guarantees totalling €1.8 billion ... later guesstimates put the figure at €3.3 billion.

Anonymous Opel and GM managers quoted by News agency DPA talk of needing €8 - €9 Bn.

Gerry Adams discovers the real world has bad men in it ..round up a posse lads

There is something deliciously ironic that Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, at his party's Ard Fheis said "all categories of gangsters or banksters must face the full rigours of the law". As an afterthought he has asked for Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to resign after it has been discovered the now nationalised Anglo-Irish Bank found 15 customers owe the bank more than 500m euro each. The AIB was raided by Irish fraud police today a Police spokesman wouldn't say what materials the officers removed (beleived to be computers) nor precisely what they were looking for.

Gerry is horrified to discover the Minister for Finance he wants sacking never bothered to read the relevant documents before sinking tax-payers money into a financial cesspit... worse than gun running ?

"Gun crime, drug crime, blue-collar crime, and white-collar crime must be confronted," said Mr Adams.

But the AIB robbers were a lot more successul than Gerry's mates who robbed The Northern Bank. £26.5m stolen by the gangsters of the Provisional IRA.... doesn't look as though they needed, guns, masks or to kidnap anybody either.

Full text of Gerry's speech here at the Irish Times.

Texted to death by Nu Labour

Lifted entirely from Craig Murray's site + Alaric

Texting death crash peer jailed for 12 weeks and banned for one yearhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7909510.stm
Texting death crash woman jailed for 21 months and banned for three years
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7865114.stm

Note that in neither case is it true - contrary to propaganda - that the texting was several minutes before the crash. In the case of the woman, the prosecution is appealing because the sentence was too lenient!

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Lord Ahmed will serve half of his sentence ( 6 weeks) in jail and half on licence (his wife and mother were passengers in his X Type Jaguar) . He was also banned from driving for a year and ordered to pay £500 prosecution costs. His solicitor, Steve Smith, said he was launching an immediate appeal against the sentence.

The 21 year old Philippa Curtis exchanged more than 20 text messages as she travelled at 70 mph in wet weatherd riving in stockinged feet.

The Times (Feb 2nd 209) quoted Jo Stagg, spokeswoman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents : “Sentencing guide-lines were recently strengthened to encourage the courts to be stricter on this type of deliberate and persistent dangerous driving but in our view this sentence is light.”

Prior to bcoming the first Muslim life peer in 1998, when he famously swore on the Koran, Lord Ahmed was notoriusly the Chairman of the South Yorkshire Labour Party for some years.

State owned Swedish Vatenfall to take over Dutch state owned Nuon,RWE take over Essent - Europe consolidates energy producers

Vattenfall [VATN.UL] the Swedish state-owned energy company operates not only in but also in Germany and Poland Last year the turnover was 164.5 billion SW krona (€14.8 Bn) and they employ 32,396 employees. The Swedish Government has stated that it has no intention to privatise the company.

Nuon is a Dutch based energy company formed in 1994 as the result of a merger of a number of privatised regional energy providers with a joint market share of up to 40 % = a total of 2.5 Mn domestic and business customers .The present owners of Nuon are the provincial authorities of Gelderland, Friesland, North Holland, and the city of Amsterdam.

Nuon, no 2 Dutch energy company (Nuon is an unlisted Dutch NV (Plc) subject to the statutory 2 tier rules under article 2: 158 – 164 of the Netherlands Civil Code.) employed 10,000 people in 2008 in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany with a turnover of € 6.15 Bn.

Both companies announced in a joint statement that Vattenfall is buying a minority share of 49 % of Nuon within the next few months, and the remaining 51% of the shares in the next 6 years.

The initial financing will be with a €5 Bn. bridge loan 150 basis points (bps) over EURIBOR for the first six months, stepping up by 75 bps for the next six months. The loan has been arranged by a group of Vattenfall's major core relationship banks including Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Nordea, Royal Bank of Scotland, SEB and Societe Generale.

Vatenfall are prepared to spend €8.5 Bn. euros on the acquisition of Nuon in a quest to form a joint company that they claim will by 2050 to be "climate neutral".They also want to be the No. 1 company for seaborne / coastal wind energy generation and claim that the combined group's ambition is to generate 15 terawatt hours of wind power by 2015, compared to 2.5 terawatt hours in 2009. To put this in perspective The Norwegian energy agency Enova set up a fund in 2006 of 20 billion Norwegian kroner or €2.5 billion to promoting renewable and energy efficiency. Based on a transmission tariff for electricity. The aim was to increase the production of new renewable energy and energy efficiency to 30 terawatt hours in 2016. Hydropowein Noway accounts for 119 T Wh annually.

Essent another Dutch energy company had been in Nuon's sights as a partner but the recent acquisition by German competitor RWE for €9.3 Bn helped to crystallise the Vattenfall / Nuon deal. The company is non -listed and was formed in 1999 by the merger of PNEM/MEGA Groep and EDON Groep (Only yesterday did Essent Central Works Council, a requirement under Dutch law approve the deal)

The RWE offer includes Essent’s 50% stake in the only Dutch nuclear power station, at Borssele jointly owned with Delta. RWE has an investment budget of €80bn up to 2020 and that although part of this has already been allocated, there is enough over for new projects such as nuclear power plants. RWE is also investing €2.4bn in a new coal and biomass power plant at Eemshaven in the north of the Netherlands.

The present owners of Nuon are the provincial authorities of Gelderland, Friesland, North Holland, and the city of Amsterdam. Currently Dutch electricity prices are among the highest in NW Europe.

The joint / companies also plan to increase investment in solar and tidal power while accelerating carbon capture and storage projects (see details on website) at Schwarze Pumpe in Germany and Nuon's Willem-Alexander power plant in Buggenum in the Netherlands.

Dutch competition authority NMa and minister of economic affairs Maria van der Hoeven are yet to approve the deal. Nuon's workers council is reacting positively to the takeover, on the basis (which has been agreed by both companies) ,that no redundancies will result from the move.

Nuon's grid company Alliander is not included in this transaction.

PS : Stories surfaced on Feb. 1oth that Vattenfall was in £11bn talks to buy Perth based Scottish & Southern Energy - not for the first time. There does not seem to be much furthr support to what are persistent rumours. S & S

Scottish & Southern have said they are on course to deliver a "modest" increase in adjusted pre-tax profits on the £1.23bn it made in the year to March 2008. Profits for six moths to September 30th were £302.6m in the six months to September 30 but expect more in the second half as price increases and higher winter demand take effect. They expect a rise of at least 9.1% in the full-year dividend.

Through their renewable energy development division Airtricity, S &S have been granted exclusivity (20th Feb 200) by The Crown Estate to develop offshore wind farms at four locations in Scottish territorial waters. The locations are Beatrice, Bell Rock, Islay and Kintyre.

With all the oil and gas (and still a lot of coal) the UK has had, there maybe a commercial fable or two in this tale.....

UPDATE : German Press comment today.

DER SPIEGEL comment on the Vatenfall move today is " When energy giants join forces, competition dies, prices increase and consumers get a raw deal"

"Every merger chokes competition," Aribert Peters, the head of the German Association of Energy Consumers (BVE), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It always brings the danger of higher prices." Peters also called on Germany's Federal Cartel Office to block the deal from going through.

"This is a big day for the Swedish state-owned Vattenfall and a bad day for German consumers." said Die Welt."The consumer's freedom of choice is smaller; the range of products is narrower; and prices will probably go up."

The Financial Times Deutschland said "Germany's (energy) retail market has been and will continue to be lacking in sufficient competition. This takeover is another setback."

Lord Patel - B Rhesus negative blood and the Neanderthal / Basque terrorist connection.

Therewas no doubt much of the noble and blue blood of Lord Patel's forefathers spilt at Crecy, Agincourt , Waterloo ...

Lord Patel first willingly offed his up when enticed at a Freshers fair in 1960 as a result of beguiling nurses who entrapped weedy students reeling from the B tests in the (then) mass radiogaphy screening for TB into the cloisters of the Blood Transfusion service.

For years he happily spilt his pints for these pretty bloodsuckers but marriage and change of address led to stopping supplies for the lucky few.

How lucky those few were, has just come to light as he may need to be on the receiving end of some of the precious stuff. The noble blood equird is B Type with the antigen Rhesus negative he comprises but 2% of the population - so much in need that such volunteers are especially asked to supply not the standard 2 pints a year but 3.

The combination of antibodies for the Rhesus (Rh) group are in the UK and most of the world are rare , remarkably Not in the land of the Basques where 35% - 40% display the condition.

The Basques are considered as the remnants of the early Europeans who lived during the pre-neolithic period according to modern genetic studies .It has been known for many decades that they demonstrate a high frequency of O and conversely one of the lowest frequency of B among human populations .

The high prevalence of Rhesus (Rh)negative in Basques (35.6%)was first described in 1945 by Etcheverry among emigrants in Argentina (Etcheverry MA:El factor Rh en personas de
ascendencia iberica e italica residents en la Argentina.Sem Med 1947;2:1 –8.)

These results have been confirmed more recently using more precise PCM methods

What is fascinating for Lord Patel and his family (His father had identical blood type) that the male side of the faily originated in Cornwall arriving in Lancashire in the mid 19th Century.

Of further interest was a Basque nationalist leader garotted in 70's whse Basque surname almost exactly matches his surname which is a distinctive Cornish family name common around Redruth.

It is not too difficult to believe that lurking in the male line there is an Iberian connection - attributed by some to remanants of Cro-Magnon man even Neanderthals (A theory well supported by Lady Patel and several neighbours)

The lesson is, if you are B Rhesus negative get on down to the Blood Transfusion service 3 times a year - get down there and give blood whatever your group.

Interesting discussion in Guradian Notes and Queries on the Basque connection to blood types.

LDV / GAZ - no money from Lord Mandelbum, ECB or Prudent Gordon . LDV demise predicted 2 1/2 years ago

This is what we posted 2 1/2 years ago about LDV - again foreseeing what was in store for Solihull and the West Midlands.. after today's announcement was made by BERR that no money was available unless parent company GAZ stumped up some roubles .... which isn't about to happen any time real soon.
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Monday, July 31, 2006 GAZ takes 100% of LDV - last UK motor business to be sold off

Lord Patel told you that Russian auto manufacturer GAZ Group were to buy the last motor manufacturing business in the UK, the van maker LDV 4 weeks ago from Sun Capital.

US bankers sell off last of UK vehicle manufacturing to Russians

GAZ Group was established in 2005, after RusPromAvto restructured its production assets and now owns 100% of LDV.

Based in the central Russian city of Niznhy Novgorod, GAZ supplies vehicles to 29 countries in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. GAZ produces about 200,000 vehicles a year.

Will the last person leaving Solihull please switch the light off.

------------------------

LDV make an antique van (or rather haven't since December 4th) , there has been not design development, product improvement, or plant investment since Mr Deripraska took control.

The talk of new green energy / electric vehicle is total bollocks. There is no way any public money should be should be thrown at this relic..."LDV is planning to introduce the world’s first electric light commercial vehicle from a volume manufacturer in 2009. Please see below for the latest information." another lead/ acid battery/ electric motor train , 85 miles range 4 hours 3 phase re-charge.

No surprise if this isn't a piece with the Scandinavian purchase of the Post Office (big LDV users ( Why ?) which Lord Mandlebum is intent on re-structuring, downsizing and ruining in the procss.

Thrift rewarded with Index Linked Savings Certificates over 11 years with ns+i

From ns+i website (National Savings and investments) 3-year 18th Issue Guaranteed compound rate over 3 years - Index-linking + 1.00% Index-linking + 1.25% basic rate, 1.67% higher rate

Myra Hindley - was her death a fiction ? Is she still alive in the UK under an assumed and new identity?

On the 15th November 2002 Moors Murderer Myra Hindley, 60 was said to have died in the West Suffolk Hospital at Bury St. Edmunds after a chest infection which hsopitalized her on NOvember 12th - following a suspected heart attack two weeks previously. She was said to have received the last rites from a Catholic priest in her bed at 4.55 am after a disturbed night in her isolated solitary ward.

On 18th November Greater Suffolk coroner Peter Dean was told by Home Office pathologist Dr Michael Heath, who carried out the post mortem examination at West Suffolk hospital, that Hindley died of bronchial pneumonia due to heart problems.

She suffered from high blood pressure and poor blood supply to the heart, resulting in blocked coronary arteries, he said.

In surprising haste she was cremated on 20th November 2002 althugh no family members attended. She was reported to be cremated following the service at the cematorium.

The inquest into Hindley's death was opened and adjourned at Highpoint Prison near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and a jury hearing was scheduled to take place at a later date. It opened on January 23rd 2003 at medium security Highpoint prison, Suffolk. It was discolsed that in her final months Hindley, 60, had been prescribed a range of 24 drugs drugs for a range of problems including angina, asthma, bronchitis, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and raised cholesterol including temazapam for insomnia.

In a unique arrangment for such an inquest there were no protesters, friends or relatives at the resumed inquest " because of the intense media interest in Hindley" therefore t was convened in a Highpoint building used for the training of officers at the desolate prison.

The jury of eight women and three men took 48 minutes to reach the unanimous decision that Hindley, died of natural causes: bronchial pneumonia, brought on by hypertension and coronary heart disease.

Her medical records were filed under a false name: Christine Charlton.

Graham Cook, a fingerprint expert with Suffolk Police, said that he had compared Hindley’s prints with those on the National Fingerprint Archive, which had been taken in October 1965 in Cheshire, and was able to confirm the identity of the dead woman beyond doubt.

Hospital staff, some of whom attended the inquest, redecorated Hindley’s room after she died.

Her ashes are said to have been be scattered at an undisclosed location. Her death certificate has never been published - but presumably exists in official records somewhere.

A curious tale in which the only direct evidence is from a small circle of employees of the Home Office.

A plausible tale which a reliable, honest, respectable and well informed contact assures us forms the basis of an elaborate agreement for Myra Hindley's release from custody, very much alive , after she had served double the sentence usually served by convicted murderers with good records of behaviour. A subject which has been very recently widely discussed by social workers at a senior level in a certain area of the UK.

Lord Ashcroft and more of his dodgy dosh helps fund the Conservative Party local constituencies - Electoral Commission sniffing about.

Bearwood Corporate Services -- Hmmm curious how we were just posting about these fascinating noble Lords who own Banks in Belize. BCS is the Conservatives’ biggest corporate donor and has given £4.74m to the party since February 2003, (at least) and heads the BBC4 midnight news.

The Times reveals today the Electoral Commission (EC) is looking at donations by the delightful and genial , fun loving, Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative party’s deputy chairman via BCS because UK electoral law may have been breached.

The EC started truffling around six months ago when it was found £4.79m has been transferred via a chain of companies controlled by the secretive fun loving, Lord Ashcroft from Belize, the Central American tax haven, to Bearwood Corporate Services (BCS).

The Tories might have to return the money if the EC finds they have breached electoral law by accepting the donations.

Not the first time that this sleepy, Wokingham, Berkshire money shifting outfit (founder and managing director, Lyn Austen) has been in the public eye .. The Tories, managed to fail to declare on time a number of Lord Ashcroft’s previous very generous pre-election donations: £5,000 to the Harlow Association, donated in January 2005; £5,000 to Brighton Kemptown; £2,145 to the Hastings & Rye Association... and also £7,993 donation to North Norfolk Conservative Association .. the seat of wannabe MP and amateur blogiste Iain Dale.

Or, how about Flowidea, a mysterious, a City-based investment company, has given at least £484,981 to the Conservatives since early 2001. No address, no phone , no website and they used to help fund William Hague's office.

Flowidea Ltd we can reveal, is a subsidiary of the investment bank Secure Trust Banking Group of personal and investment bankers ( website) owned by Arbuthnot Securities, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

An executive directors of Flowidea is Henry Angest, one of 11 businessmen who supported Michael Portillo's pointless bid for the Conservative leadership - who sits on Arbuthnot's remuneration Committee with BBC economics rentagob Director Ruth Lea.

Henry Angest is a wll known and vocifrous Eurosceptic, is a member of the Congress for Democracy steering committee and the National Council member of Business for Sterling.

Let's hope no-one starts asking about Lord Laidlaw, where he lives , eats , sleeps, fornicates and in general leads the low life whilst heavily funding the Conservative Party.