And, just like that – BREXIT ends the joy of Poundland

It looks as if Poundland is going to have to think about a name change thanks to BREXIT, and maybe Putin if we can spin things to include his war crimes too..

While it was already putting its brand name at risk, and it may only have been a matter of time before some ambitious Legal Eagles decided there was a chance to make their name and raise a Class Action by challenging that once representative brand name, Poundland must be straining some part of the Trade Description Act, or just plain old credibility.

It had already stepped onto shady ground by introducing a range of items ranging up to £5, but that was probably OK, and confined to a small corner of the relevant ranges.

But it grew slowly, probably mostly under coverage of the CORONAVIRUS lockdown, when attention was diverted – and was more noticeable when I eventually started to get back there after it was easier to get to the shops.

Then we had BREXIT, with promised price rises, and I did make a little post some time ago, wondering about the fate of all the pound shops.

Maybe the simplest answer is just to legally force them to become 2 pound shops, such as ‘Poundland’, or ‘Two Poundland’ if they prefer words without numbers.

This would allow them to easily change all their prices overnight, similar to the price change I noticed when I was there last night.

A while ago I picked up some handy little COB Headlights for, you guessed it, £1 each,

A few months later, they appeared in a few other colours (originally only blue) – I was grumpy.

I had though of picking up one or two more, as the colour coding would have been handy.

My mistake.

Wandering past these little COB Headlights, they had received a new price label.

Not something reasonable – but a straight 100% increase, and now £2 each.

Laugh at this post if you like, but it’s a sign of price rises all around – NOT a few percent here and there, many are 25% and 50%, but this is the first straight !00% I’ve seen.

Bear in mind, price rises are not always just rises in price – it can be a reduction in what the same money buys!

Meanwhile, in Red Square

Small wonder I still haven’t started looking at the news since 2019.

If it’s not America and (he’s not in jail yet) Trump, it’s Russia and (he’s not dead yet) Putin.

And people wonder why I wish the Cold War was still raging, and Reagan and Gorbachev were still around

Did Brexit/Putin cause this shocking Poundland cake scandal?

I had to drop into my local ‘Late Night’ Poundland last night, after the bargain reflective cycling glasses I’d got there a while ago decided to become two single, independent, reflective glasses when they broke into two when I put them in the wrong pocket, and they got a little stressed.

No luck there – that one seemed to have only five or six cycling items, so I’ll have to head into the ‘Big City’ branch, and see if it has more.

Since I was there, i decided to stock up on one of my Poundland favourites. Not really a bargain (a local supermarket has similar cakes for the same price), but their little choc chip buns are handy.

They actually had some in stock (they can be a rare find), and I grabbed one – BUT SOMETHING WAS WRONG!

Pictured below is the current pack I’m just about to finish.

Next, SHOULD be a pic of the pack I took from Poundland’s shelf last night, but that’s not possible…

Because the pack only had NINE CHOC CHIP BUNS INSIDE!

It’s just like the Great Toblerone Scandal of a few years back, when people started counting their Toblerone pieces, and found the price had stayed the same, but the space between the pieces had gone up, so there were fewer pieces in the pack.

My pic shows how many fewer choc chip buns we’re getting now, after an overnight change.

Not just dropping ONE, but THREE at a stroke!

In broad round numbers, losing THREE buns, THAT’S a 25% INCREASE, just sneaked into plain sight.

That’s what I get for wondering

I kid you not, but while I was reading about the latest rise in electricity/energy prices a few days ago (apparently the average family home can expect a bill of around £3,500 in the coming year – thank goodness I am not the average family home), I foolishly mused how the pound/dollar stores would be able to continue their business model, and keep their cute name without ending up in court for false description, since they have already introduced lots of goodies that can cost anything up to £5, so have no place in a ‘Pound Shop’.

Look like we have the answer.

Stuff will just keep shrinking, until customers need a magnifying glass or microscope to find what they want to buy.

Dumb Free?

Freedumb?

Only their supporters are dumber!

Still All Free

Google maps has added 360 panoramas of some locations destroyed by Russia

Kyivmaps has other 360 panoramas available online. “We want to show the world the scale of the catastrophe and the genocide of the Ukrainian nation. To record what these scoundrels did to our country and were brought to justice. We record with the help of modern technologies the destruction caused by the aggressor.

https://kyivmaps.com/ua/war-in-kyiv

 

The panoramas have been taken from a number of drone videos similar to the example below.

It’s chilling to think that we can see this almost immediately – compare and contrast to the film footage which took who knows how long to emerge from World War II, showing the atrocities committed by Hitler’s Nazi forces.

Now we can see Putin’s war crimes, almost in progress.

While I know the ‘people’ aspect of these views is obviously the most important, I still can’t get the early images of the Antonov An-225 Mriya lying wrecked, broken, and burned in her hangar.

At that point it should have been obvious that Putin was set on destruction in Ukraine, and had already ‘Lost It’, as only a madman would destroy a unique asset, rather than capture it, either to use, or even just a trophy.

 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy – apparently better at’adulting’ than me

I’m impressed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy‘s maturity and ability to behave.

Had this pile of human dross visited me, there would probably have been some anonymous wooden crates shipped out of the venue some time later.

In fact, I think they’re also lucky that Zelensky does not run the same kind of ‘Special Operation’ Vladimir Putin appears to have gained a reputation for.

This possible example comes from 2010, and involves a group of politicians travelling in an aircraft:

Vladimir Putin was responsible for plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski, says Polish defence minister

Poland’s defence minister has accused Vladimir Putin of involvement in the 2010 plane crash which killed the Polish president as he urged him to “take responsibility”.

Antoni Macierewicz claims the fatal crash which killed Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, the First Lady and 94 others in 2010 in Russia was preceded by two explosions on board.

In a radio interview Mr Macierewicz said the Russian president “should have the courage to take responsibility for what has happened.”

He told public radio PR 24: “President Putin should finally face the truth: two explosions which eventually destroyed the Tu-154 were incontestably identified by official expertise.”
Recommended

His comments follow the Russian leader’s denial of any explosions on board as he called on Poland to stop investigating for any potential Russian role in the crash.

Responding to a question from a Polish reporter at an annual news conference, Mr Putin said it was time for Poland to move beyond the plane crash, turn a new page, and “grow up”.

Politically, Zelensky may have had to share space with this disgusting delegation, and been polite, but his face told the real story.

Be interesting to know the first thing he did after they left.

Had a shower?

Putin’s Negotiators meet Zelensky

So, you’re thinking about World War III – and would like readings of local radiation levels

Fret no more!

If you’re near Europe, you can now get the following information by visiting Windy:

https://www.windy.com/

I don’t know if the relevant article can be linked, I can’t, so here’s a screen grab of the relevant intro:

European Radiation

Unfortunately, the various blockers etc I use seem to be preventing Windy’s ‘Share’ link from being populated, and it just comes up blank for me.

So, best I can do is quote their own guide, and I’m afraid you’ll have to do your best to find it, if interested.

Windy is quite ‘feature rich’, so if you are not already familiar with its interface, a little perseverance (or even ask for help in the Comments area below) may be needed.

Where to find Radioactivity stations

The Radiation stations are available on desktop only as of now. They are located in the bottom right menu together with other POI stations. Click on “More layers” and select Radiation.

I only have desktop, but I understand other platforms are now being served since this intro was written.

Now you can have their excellent weather forecasts, with custom email alerts triggered by criteria you can choose, and check if Mad Vlad has been throwing any of his toys out of the pram :-)

When you don’t quite understand the rules of giving a warning

Sweden might be upset about this, being left out.

Finland is Warned

Things Vladimir Putin reminds me of

It’s some time since I took these pics of one of the smaller displays in Kelvingrove, set in a small, quiet, side room.

It’s one of a number of similar displays which seem to have been similarly placed off the main galleries, allowing them to be viewed with little disturbance.

I’ve mentioned some of the others in previous posts, but never really found the right mood to include this one.

Sadly, coming across it while looking at news of the various atrocities and war crimes carried out in Ukraine under the will of Vladimir Putin provided an unfortunately all too ideal opportunity.

Glasgow Kelvingrove Ernest Levy Sketch

 

Glasgow Kelvingrove Ernest Levy Testimony

Dear Russia – Please explain why destroying Britain starts with SCOTLAND!

Crazy Putin’s propaganda machine at work – Let’s sink Britain.

But look at the launch position of his nice shiny nuclear toy, and where it begins to wage its path of destruction – the west coast of Scotland!

Seriously Vlad, what did the Scots ever do to you?

At least we hope it is (just deranged propaganda).

It would be a pity if he was serious, had forgotten the massive underwater nuclear deterrent in place to keep demented people like him in check, and we were not around to see it unleashed after he’d had his fun.

Forgetting the reality of ‘Duck and Cover’ (and all the other hopeful nuclear bomb ‘defences’ of the Cold War era), none of them are going to be much help if your whole country has been sunk, and turned in a glowing wet smear on the face of the Earth.

 

Thanks Vlad.

It’s really great to have grown up through the Cold War, MAD, Civil Defence etc, seen all the checks and balances it had be (wrongly) thrown away, only to have you wake it all up again, and have people seriously talking about World War III.

Update

While the discussion this came up in was all text between the members (so nothing clip an image of), I did think it was significant to see a number of participants note that Vladimir Putin was severely deluded if he thought anyone under the age of 45 had any idea what a nuclear threat meant, and basically didn’t care.

What! No Faslane?

Typical!

Scotland ignored and passed over as Putin’s propaganda machine published claimed flight times for his ICBMs after news of additional support for Ukraine in light of his war crimes, genocide etc.

Who cares if it takes one of them 202 seconds to reach London?

We want to know the flight time to Faslane!

I miss the good old days of the Cold War, when we had leaked maps prepared by ‘experts’ (seems we had them, even in the days BEFORE the Internet) in the Soviet Union, showing targets in Scotland, which military bases that had been abandoned, and lain derelict for years.

Then again, wasn’t the Soviet way to keep your boss happy to provide him with quantity information, rather than quality information?

A medal a week for the intelligence officer that reported 50 potential targets a week, even if he made them up, while the poor sod that spent all his time checking the target he reported actually existed… was posted to a nice comfy gulag in Siberia.

ICBM Flight Times From Russia

Russian state TV simulates ‘terrifying’ nuclear strike on Europe amid World War 3 concerns

It’s things like that which get him memorialised by statues like this, erected outside the Russian embassy in Prague (apparently).

Pooping Putin outside Russian Embassy in Prague

More seriously.

Kyiv Exhumations

Footnote

It’s really rather depressing to consider that we survived the years when orange moron Donald J Trump managed to take over America, and there is little doubt (in my mind at least) that the staff miraculously managed to prevent him from launching at least one nuclear weapon.

Now we’re seeing another sad old man who, according to some, is both mentally and physically failing, yet has managed to maintain his grip on a massive nation – complete with nuclear weapons.

I could ramble on about this, having grown up through the Cold War, and I’m sure was not alone when there was an announcement that it was over.

Over? No.

Just changed into something even more dangerous, without the open secrecy which that period enjoyed.

Now we really don’t know who has their finger on the nuclear button, and even less about what checks and balances there are to provide oversight.

Perhaps even more worrying it that all the scare stories which have emerged over the years seem to relate to ordinary Russians who took the decision to prevent nuclear strikes being carried out when Soviet protocols, their superiors, or even automated systems, demanded them.

Given the sort of response an actual Russian nuclear strike ordered by a deranged Putin might trigger, it would be nice to be living in a world where MAD (mutually assured destruction) is still a talking point, rather than one where someone who is beginning to be considered a madman has control of nuclear weapons, and is using them as threats.

A first strike by Putin could see this move from a deterrent (which he is apparently ignoring) to a live firing event.

This video was published just before Putin ordered his ‘Special Operation, or invasion, of Ukraine, and commenced on his policy of war crimes and genocide.