Stormy Weather II

[gurnemanz]

The BBC weather website has gone downhill.

Not at all user friendly now.

Agreed. I mainly use Met Office, mostly as Android app.

[oddoneout]

The BBC weather website has gone downhill.

Not at all user friendly now.

Which kind of defeats its whole purpose. Not finding an online retail site user-friendly is one thing but a site purporting to provide information shoots itself in the foot if that information cannot easily be accessed or understood. The fact that public money has gone into making it unsuitable adds to the irritation.

[Serial_Apologist]

Which kind of defeats its whole purpose. Not finding an online retail site user-friendly is one thing but a site purporting to provide information shoots itself in the foot if that information cannot easily be accessed or understood. The fact that public money has gone into making it unsuitable adds to the irritation.

I'm slowly accustomising myself to the new BBC layouts and internal links, though, apart from now (once again, following the last shake-up) being able to refer back to the 12 hours preceding a particular time of observation, it really represents little by way of improvement. Why fgs have they stopped displaying frontal systems from their synoptics, when from the viewer's pov they so clearly indicate where and when the rain is coming from? More and more one is persuaded that the world of management, trans-sectorally and at every level, is being usurped by idiots; oversight takes on its full meaning.

[Lat-Literal]

Well it won't be smog for all the areas covered?

But it's day 4 of it here and I have a politician coming later to see what I had hoped would have been the splendid view. I have identified her as our only hope re planning controls now that our Mr Dependable is standing down. She's a Lib Dem. I will be saying she only stands a chance of being elected if she says in her leaflets she will be on the Planning Committee. Sometimes there is a need to distinguish between national and local situations for all kinds of pragmatic purposes. And this is a direct reflection of the manner in which smog works.

[oddoneout]

But it's day 4 of it here and I have a politician coming later to see what I had hoped would have been the splendid view. I have identified her as our only hope re planning controls now that our Mr Dependable is standing down. She's a Lib Dem. I will be saying she only stands a chance of being elected if she says in her leaflets she will be on the Planning Committee. Sometimes there is a need to distinguish between national and local situations for all kinds of pragmatic purposes. And this is a direct reflection of the manner in which smog works.

Well we've had 3 days of fog here and the chances of it being smog are limited unless the North Sea is doing something odd. Our version of smog tends to come a bit later and is the result of the fields taking off in the wind.....
The weather conditions will dictate whether fog arises and in polluted areas it will become smog I imagine; currently there are fingers being pointed at wood burning stoves in London and surrounds.
OT but a bugbear of mine - the inability to distinguish between wood burning stoves to Defra standards and open grates burning god knows what picked up on family walks is disturbing, especially when mention is made of bans, bearing in mind there is already regulation to control such pollution in urban areas. Trouble is that it's the local council's responsibility to inform and enforce, and given lack of money this isn't anywhere on the list of priorities.
BTW the person you want to be on the Planning Committee - is that decision totally within her control?

[Lat-Literal]

Well we've had 3 days of fog here and the chances of it being smog are limited unless the North Sea is doing something odd. Our version of smog tends to come a bit later and is the result of the fields taking off in the wind.....
The weather conditions will dictate whether fog arises and in polluted areas it will become smog I imagine; currently there are fingers being pointed at wood burning stoves in London and surrounds.
OT but a bugbear of mine - the inability to distinguish between wood burning stoves to Defra standards and open grates burning god knows what picked up on family walks is disturbing, especially when mention is made of bans, bearing in mind there is already regulation to control such pollution in urban areas. Trouble is that it's the local council's responsibility to inform and enforce, and given lack of money this isn't anywhere on the list of priorities.
BTW the person you want to be on the Planning Committee - is that decision totally within her control?

I love the smell of a wood burning stove in the great outdoors as long as it is to Defra standards. Have noted your other comments. I just feel that in being 15 miles from Central London that Central London is relevant but perhaps it isn't. It just always seems to be from that direction and the woods beyond the valley are not wholly in the opposite direction.

We have a situation here where the Planning Committee membership will be in proportion to the party representation. In the past, the Conservative and Labour members abandoned party political ideology in the Planning Committee to judge each case on its merits. The Council usually has no Liberals on it at all. In the past four years, the majority party, Labour - and it is its New Labour wing - has almost been whipped on the Planning Committee and steamrollered everything through. It is a green Conservative in this ward who is retiring. The number of councillors is being reduced from three to two. Regrettably, the two Tories who are standing are not expected by their own admission to be on the Planning Committee.

Labour has never won here although with significant demographic changes the ward may soon be split three ways. One Liberal was elected in this ward in the late 1960s and one Lib Dem was elected here in the 1990s. Each was isolated as the only Liberal on the council. The same would be true again of any Lib Dem elected today but there is no doubt that it is one of the Lib Dems who has been consistently campaigning here for two decades. She has a high profile in the way that the 1990s Lib Dem had just before he got in on a personal vote.

And when I spoke with the branch chair he said that she's very interested in planning and environmental matters. He is the one who has asked her to visit me. I just feel that she should be using that planning interest as a selling point. But, yes, there is a big question on whether she would be able to choose to be on the Planning Committee. If she was to be elected as the only Lib Dem in this ward and on the Council she would really have to force it through rather being told what Committee to be on. But she claims to be very outgoing and confident!!

The party is the least important factor. What matters is representation on the Planning Committee by someone in this ward who is interested and allowed to judge each case on merit.

[DracoM]

Erm...............???
Not a lot to do with Stormy Weather or weather of any kind actually.......?

[Lat-Literal]

Erm...............???
Not a lot to do with Stormy Weather or weather of any kind actually.......?

No - but I was asked and if she cant see the view then she won't be able to see the importance of her role.

But to update.......it's still thick fog and the daffodils are still struggling.

[Nick Armstrong]

Glad yr.no is doing a job!

In my extracurricular motor racing activities, I have several times mystified the team by getting the weather forecast bang on, whilst they (relying on UK weather sites) were way off

[DracoM]

As in much more, Scandinavia is well ahead of the field..............!!

[Lat-Literal]

She didn't turn up - and we only have fog.

I am now expecting the smog to be so bad on election day that I won't be able to find the polling station.

[Bryn]

Ah, polling day. It will be fine from dawn to dusk. Had a leaflet from the local Labour Party branch through door today. There is just the one town councillor to elect. They did not even name their candidate in the leaflet. The phone number they offered carried a recorded message to say they were unable to take calls. Still, no other party has bothered to leaflet me. I'm tempted to play the age game and get one of the candidates' teams to give me a lift to the polling station (a 5 minute walk). Cynical? Moi?

[Lat-Literal]

Ah, polling day. It will be fine from dawn to dusk. Had a leaflet from the local Labour Party branch through door today. There is just the one town councillor to elect. They did not even name their candidate in the leaflet. The phone number they offered carried a recorded message to say they were unable to take calls. Still, no other party has bothered to leaflet me. I'm tempted to play the age game and get one of the candidates' teams to give me a lift to the polling station (a 5 minute walk). Cynical? Moi?

Interesting.

At what age can one play the age card?

I'm increasingly concerned about the pedestrian and inclement conditions.

[cloughie]

Ah, polling day. It will be fine from dawn to dusk. Had a leaflet from the local Labour Party branch through door today. There is just the one town councillor to elect. They did not even name their candidate in the leaflet. The phone number they offered carried a recorded message to say they were unable to take calls. Still, no other party has bothered to leaflet me. I'm tempted to play the age game and get one of the candidates' teams to give me a lift to the polling station (a 5 minute walk). Cynical? Moi?

...and then not vote for their candidate!

[Serial_Apologist]

...and then not vote for their candidate!

That's precisely what happened when we took elderly and disabled voters to the polling stations at the notorious 1979 general election. When, on depositing them back at their homes, they all said "Thank you very much - I've voted for the Conservatives for the first time in my life", it was blazingly obvious what the result was going to be.

Oh, and to return to thread topic, it snowed for much of that day, in spite of it being May.