Stock up on food to prepare for extreme weather, minister says

Households should stock up on food to prepare for extreme weather as the strongest El Niño event in a generation develops over the Pacific Ocean, a government minister has said.

Environment Secretary Dame Angela Eagle told the Guardian the powerful natural climate phenomenon will lead to "more extreme storms in this country".  Her comments came as the National Audit Office (NAO) warned Britain's food supply chain is at risk given the growing threat of cyber-attacks and the climate crisis.

The NAO said the government was too reliant on the private sector to deal with food supply disruption. The government is due to unveil a strategy about preparing for national emergencies later this year.

Dame Angela said "We're about to experience probably the largest El Niño that has ever been seen, and that will lead to drier summers, wetter winters, with more extreme storms in this country.

"It will do a lot more damage in Asia with flooding, and therefore I think that we need to take it seriously.  If you've got a store of a bit of food that can keep you going for a while before the emergency services can get to you, you're going to be a lot better off than if you haven't.  So some of it is that kind of preparation for just being a bit more resilient."

Her comments came as an NAO report warned Britain's food supply chain is vulnerable to plant or human disease outbreaks, cyber-attacks and extreme weather.  It also cited climate change as a longer-term chronic risk which could leave Britain's food supply at risk.  The disruptions could push up prices and leave vulnerable people struggling to buy food, it said.

The NAO said the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) was too reliant on private companies to handle disruptions to food supply.  It added the department had not done enough in recent years to improve supply chain resilience.

UK households are less prepared for emergencies than those in several other countries such as Finland, Sweden and European Union nations, the NAO added.  It said ministers should encourage households to prepare for supply chain disruptions and learn from the approaches taken by other countries.

A number of rail journeys will be cancelled across Devon and Cornwall from next week due to recurring issues with a fleet of trains, a rail operator has said.
Great Western Railway (GWR) said five weekday services will be cancelled between Penzance and Plymouth/Exeter from Monday.

The issue is down to the company's Class 175 fleet, which it said had been "challenging from a reliability perspective," prompting too many cancellations for customers.
The operator said it understood the timetable changes would be "frustrating for customers" but believed the move would "provide a more reliable service in the short term" while it worked to bring its fleet up to standard.

The Class 175 trains entered service in 2000, when they were used by Transport for Wales.

GWR brought in 26 of them last year to replace older diesel trains, with hopes to reduce costs and pollution.

The trains, however, had been "out of service for a prolonged period" before transferring to GWR, "requiring more recommissioning work than anticipated", a spokesperson for the operator said.

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01

14:18 Westbury to Swindon due 15:01 will be starting late from Westbury.
This is due to this train being late from the depot.

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58

15:14 Swindon to Westbury due 15:58 will be starting late from Swindon.
This is due to a late running train being in front of this one.

In terms of usage, it is also quite handy for gigs at the prospect building.

Reeks of consultant speak. If they are called passengers it reminds everybody what the object of the exercise is. Had similar situation in the health service, they are patients and want a medical issue sorted.

Customer tends lean towards a sales opportunity, coffee shops on stations, over-priced branches of M&S in hospitals.

British army told to stop non-essential training exercises to save money

There's also the "Pictish symbol signs"! I think that station is La-Bastide-St-Laurent-les-Bains.

From the BBC:


Imber could be re-opened, then? 

The two words - which are not the same, but which do rile me, when they are misused - are 'regular' and 'frequent'.  Regular could be 'once every one hundred years', whereas frequent could be 'every few minutes', for example.

Key Facts

Name Origin: Named after Edsel Ford, the son of founder Henry Ford and former president of the company.

The Launch: Debuted on September 4, 1957 (known as "E-Day"), following a massive, highly publicized hype and teaser campaign.

Unique Features: Famous for its polarizing vertical "horse-collar" grille, rolling-dome speedometer, and the Teletouch push-button automatic transmission located right in the center of the steering wheel.

Models Offered: Included upscale models like the Citation and Corsair, as well as lower-priced choices like the Pacer and Ranger.

The Failure: Became a legendary corporate failure due to poor timing during an economic recession, quality control issues on shared assembly lines, and a design that public consumers largely disliked. Ford lost hundreds of millions of dollars before discontinuing the brand in November 1959