Boris Johnson has been in the news quite a bit recently, from being treated for Covid19 in hospital to the birth of baby number (who knows). But according to Business Insider he wants to make a real mark on history by building a £20 billion bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Plans have been proposed for a route from Larne in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland, which means it would have to span a 22-mile route, where the water is more than 1,000ft deep. According to engineers, this would require about 30 support towers at least 1,400ft high to carry the road deck across the deepest part and above the shipping channel, and part of it would have to be a tunnel to avoid unexploded bombs in the water: Beaufort’s Dyke, 7 miles off the Scottish coastal village of Portpatrick, is the site of tonnes of rockets, metal drums, and radioactive waste dumped there following World War II.
One engineer described the idea as being‚ “as feasible as building a bridge to the moon”.
House prices in the UK are often a topic of conversation at dinner parties, and all sorts of things can affect the price of property, including the post code. One town has taken things a bit far to protect the reputation of the area though: According to a story in the Daily Mail, the residents of the supposedly idyllic market town of Melbourne in Derbyshire have been keeping quiet about drug problems in the town because they fear it would have a negative impact on house prices.
People living in the town, said they believed homeowners had avoided reporting crimes to the police for several years, and one wag on social media posted, “Melbourne is a lovely place to live, but it does have its share of Hyacinth Bucket types, and this kind of attitude does nobody any good in the long run. It is no good burying your head in the sand.”
Usually when you tell someone to “get lost” in the UK it is considered rude, but according to their website, that is exactly what the Ramblers Association is asking walkers in the UK to do. The aim is to find and map thousands of miles of lost historic paths across England and Wales that were “missed off” the official definitive maps that councils were required to draw up in the 1950s.
People in the UK have just six years until the Government cut-off date of 2026, when it will no longer be possible to add paths to the definitive map based on historic evidence, meaning the right to access them will not be protected for future generations. Once all the lost rights of way are mapped, the Ramblers will be recruiting people to join a team of dedicated volunteers, researching historic evidence and submitting applications to local authorities ahead of the 2026 deadline.
One thing that the UK does not need is more “Git orf moi land” (get off my land) mentality.
Here is a question for you. What would happen to you if you were caught driving a BMW X5’s at 122mph through a 30mph zone? Well according to the Daily Mirror, for one guy in England – nothing.
Seemingly he was on the way to a meeting to discuss his son’s education at a college, but was cleared of 16 driving offences, including 11 for speeding, four of jumping red lights and one of driving on the wrong side of a keep left marker.
The reason? He is a police driving instructor who claimed he was practising his driving skills to ensure they were “up to scratch”.
Anne Walker, chairwoman of the bench at Suffolk Magistrates’ Court, said there was no agreed policy or rules for how police instructors should do their own CPD (Continued Professional Development) and record it. She said, “We cannot be sure that Mr Brown did not undertake these two journeys while carrying out his own CPD.”
Sources:
- Business Insider
- Daily Mirror
- Ramblers Association
- Daily Mail