News Round Up
by Patrick O’Connor
SCOTLAND Yard may have a reputation for catching villains but its drivers can’t seem to tell their diesel from petrol, says the Daily Express.
Police drivers who fill up at the wrong pump have cost the Yard more than a quarter of a million pounds over the past five years (despite warning signs on the fuel caps), figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Damage caused by refuelling mistakes costs taxpayers a fortune and means fewer patrol cars available to fight crime. Simple measures, such as reminders on fuel caps, should ensure officers do not make this simple but expensive error.”
A life-affirming story from the life-threatening environment of Afghanistan is reported by the BBC.
Army reservist medic Angie McDonnell reckons that her life was saved by a bomb-hunting dog whilst she was on routine patrol near Camp Bastion.
Vidar, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois, sniffed out a haul of guns and weapons which were set to be used against British troops.
When Angie discovered later that Vidar faced being put down after being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder she became determined to adopt him back to her home in south Wales.
Angie commented: “He saved my life so it’s only fair that I did what I could to save his. When I heard he had been retired after starting to get scared, I knew I had to track him down to help him. The dogs out there are heroes and I knew from the first moment I saw him that he was a one-in-a-million. He looked like he needed a cuddle so I went into his kennel and rubbed his belly. We became best friends out there and I was sad to leave him when I returned home. I had to find him after he had been such a hero in Afghanistan.”
The spa town of Cheltenham is also where GCHQ, the centre of the UK’s surveillance network is based, so it perhaps fitting that it is where, according to the Daily Mail, mysterious street artist Banksy is thought to have unveiled his latest creation.
An image of three trenchcoat clad agents eavesdropping on a telephone box has appeared in the town. Fan website Street Art News claimed the work had ‘all the Banksy characteristics in narrative, style and execution’.
They say that politics is a dog eat dog world but a story in the Daily Mirror seems to take this too far.
For Zeus, an eight year old Rottweiler, has just been given a polling card to vote in the forthcoming European Parliament elections!
His owner, Russell Hoyle, from Norton, Stockon-on-Tees, said: “I can remember when the people came round to do the census and I told them: ‘There is myself and my wife and we have got Zeus living here as well and he is 63 in dog years’. I know obviously it is a cock-up but me and my wife are going to vote and Zeus is coming with us.”
Reference lists:
The Express (www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
Daily Mirror (www.mirror.co.uk)
BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)