Grumpy Owl

Eh? All major road building projects in Wales are scrapped From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64640215 With such 'strict criteria', there will be no new roads built in Wales then. And less likely that any current ones will see any 'improvements' in order to alleviate congestion and help with traffic flows.

Seem to be a lot of 'strange deaths' which the police keep saying are not 'suspicious'. A few months ago, the body of a woman was found in the pool at my local park, yet the police said there was nothing 'suspicious'. There was also a story about a dead man being found in a canal somewhere, but the police didn't think it was suspicious. Now back to your story, "early hours" is a bit of a 'vague' time definition, could be any time from 1am to 6am? Who's out in their garden at that time of the morning? And what injuries did she sustain and from how? While there are unanswered questions such as these, I would say any death should be treated as suspicious.

On a side-related note, I found this story quite interesting... Mystery of Tamworth dog walker missing for almost two years as cops make fresh appeal From: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/mystery-tamworth-dog-lover-missing-26220455 Yeah, because people who go for a walk with their dog just 'mysteriously' vanish without trace, just like Ms Bulley did? Is this an attempt at 'normalisation'? While I do follow the local media here, I must admit that this is the first I have heard of this particular case.

I would like to think that at some point he will have a few thoughts on this case, though he will need to be 'careful', perhaps he is being 'goaded' to break cover? That has pretty much convinced me that this is indeed a massive psy-op, and this poll is merely to determine how many people are so easily absorbed by or distracted by the 'latest thing' in the media. Consider this possibility: this Nicola Bulley doesn't exist, she never went missing, this story is a complete fabrication, her 'husband' and 'friends' are just actors, and this is all a media 'charade' to test how people will believe what the media tell them to believe, because only 'they' are the arbiters of truth. It's a fictional soap opera script being played out via the mainstream media.

This is what happens though when both the police, and the local media who just regurgitate their 'tweets', leave people hanging and just provide titbits of information. How often do you see some local news article where it merely states something along the lines of "police have closed off a busy city centre street while they attend to an 'incident'"? It's all deliberate, the intention is to get people 'speculating', which is all they can do in the absence of actual facts and information.

It is a good question and one of the first that I asked. From: https://www.richplanet.net/20230127.php Now I appreciate that joining a Teams call from a mobile phone might have meant that she joined 'audio only', and may have had her phone mic turned off - so she was simply listening in - but still it is an important detail that is mostly being overlooked. She apparently worked as a 'mortgage advisor'? Did she regularly 'work from home'? If so, did she regularly join Teams calls from her mobile phone? What was the purpose of this Teams call? (Daily 'briefing' or whatever?) Who else participated in these calls? Should she have been at home 'working' instead of taking her dog for a walk? Did she make any excuse during this call as to why she may 'step away' for a moment?

The 'current thing' with buses is not quite the same, but is possibly related. Bus operators participating in this scheme will ultimately lose money, but it will be - yes you guessed it - us taxpayers at large who end up footing the bill for this mass subsidisation of bus services. Here in the West Midlands, the max single fare is £2.40, but then again if people are making a journey TO somewhere, then they will usually need to travel back, in which case most people are already buying day tickets at either £4.00 or £4.20, which then allows them to make multiple journeys by bus in a single day. I imagine people who infrequently travel by bus in other areas of the country where fares may be higher have seen some benefit as a result of this scheme, however unless there has been significant increases in patronage, then the bus operators themselves will likely see no benefit. What then happens when fares go back up again after March? As I see things, as a bus user myself, during the 'pandemic' the Government and local authorities did what they could to dissuade people from using public transport because "it wasn't safe" and they might catch some pesky virus and die as a result. It is not enough to keep throwing public money at bus operators to support commercial bus services, and I don't think 'franchising' is the answer or solution here either.

I agree, this all smacks of a media psy-op to me the way this is panning out. In fact, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Madeleine McCann case. A two-hour TV interview? While out for a walk around Sheldon Country Park in Birmingham this afternoon, I passed by a young family, and one of their children asked their parents "have they found Nicola Bulley yet?" It seems this is all designed to have a mass psychological effect on the wider population, the purpose of which is yet to be revealed, but there will be one somewhere. I'm also concerned by the number of TikTok'ers and YouTubers making 'commentary' videos on this, as it would also appear that some people are exploiting this to raise their own profiles, as well as harvesting 'likes' and attention/comments. Social engineering, or a massive distraction, who really knows...

Microsoft Teams is basically the same thing as Skype, which is also owned by Microsoft. It also allows group conferencing video/audio calls/meetings same as Zoom.

Sorry, but you lost me after "Baxter Dimitry"... It has been pointed out on numerous occasions in this forum that 'NewsPunch' is an untrustworthy 'fake news' website. There may well be a small element of 'truth' hidden away in this article, but it is mostly obscured by nonsensical bullshit - the kind that is quickly 'shared' and seeded into the 'truth community' with the ultimate aim of making us all look stupid and ill-informed.

Wow, that's gratitude for you... Robert Goodwin guilty of Shane Thompson murder From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64582827 I once offered a job to a friend of mine at a company I was working for, we went to the pub and he bought me a couple of beers to say "thanks". How times have changed!

This 'Teams call' she was on probably holds answers, yet it is being mostly overlooked as part of this investigation. There must be a recording or transcript somewhere, or other participants in the call must have noticed something 'odd' from the time. She joined a Teams call from her mobile while out walking her dog, then somehow puts the phone down on a bench, and then mysteriously vanishes. -"Excuse me for a second guys, I'm just going to have a splash in the river..." Someone who seemed to be fond of taking 'selfies' is surely too narcissistic to leave their phone unattended?

If it means that single fares can be reduced to a more reasonable price, then it should work out fine. When a single journey costs £140, while a return costs £150, somebody somewhere is getting seriously fleeced. A few years ago, I used to once or twice a year travel down to London, and it was cheaper to buy two singles at £6, than it was to buy a return at £32

My eyebrows got raised when the police came up with their 'hypothesis' that she had fell in the river, because it seemed at that point they were trying to 'close down' or swiftly conclude the investigation. I very much hope that Richard D Hall will pick up on this one and start some proper investigating, as so many things just don't 'add up'. For starters, why would she log into a Teams work call on her mobile phone, then just leave it on the bench while still logged in? Who were the other participants in this work call, and did they notice anything 'off'? Did she say anything before she put her phone down on the bench? Who does she work for and what was the purpose of her being on this call? (If she was working from home, why not join from her home computer?) With no evidence that anyone had slipped and fallen into the river, and no body or items of clothing found in the water, why were the police so quick to 'assume' she had fallen in the river and 'did not leave the area'? I get the feeling that something is being covered up, but at this stage, I have no idea why.

It is important to understand that there isn't actually any shortage of food - any such 'shortages' being reported by the mainstream media are merely to fuel 'perception' of such in order to push certain narratives and agendas. People in African countries have been 'starving' for years - yes, I remember very well the Live Aid and Band Aid appeals, and it looks like the millions of pounds raised have done nothing. Because it was never meant to. Farmlands in Africa (and elsewhere) have been bought by multi-national corporations - or locked into 'exclusive' supply deals - so much of the crops and produce grown/harvested there end up being exported to production facilities in order to 'supply' Western countries. The multi-nationals make huge profits from starving the natives, then the ordinary public are expected to 'donate' what little disposable income they have to 'big charities' in order to 'help the starving millions'. As I have repeated stated here in this forum, the UK missed a huge opportunity following Brexit, to get our own farmers growing produce and harvesting crops again, in order to meet our own populace's needs. Instead, they prefer to pay our farmers to install solar panels and wind turbines, or let the land 'go wild', and thus maintain this dependence on imported produce. Rising energy and fuel prices mean the cost of transporting such produce across the world has increased, yeah they'll blame the 'Russian invasion of Ukraine' for that, but it is governments' sanctions policies that have caused this, and deliberately. Millions of poultry and waterfowl have been slaughtered because of 'bird flu' concerns, and cattle and sheep are being blamed for causing global warming because of their farts. Reduce the meat supply, and people will be forced to consume insect-based substitutes, or 'lab-grown'/plant-based alternatives.

Back to the police for a moment, and people wonder why they are getting a 'bad rep' at the moment... Remember the 1984 movie "Police Academy"? Hundreds have joined police who should not have been allowed – inspector From: https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2023/02/05/hundreds-have-joined-police-who-should-not-have-been-allowed--inspector/ Police recruitment used to be all about getting the 'best people for the job', but it would seem that we are now facing the consequence of lowering the bar so much in order to meet 'diversity quotas'.

Remember when 'Police Academy' was a fictional comedy movie? Hundreds have joined police who should not have been allowed – inspector From: https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2023/02/05/hundreds-have-joined-police-who-should-not-have-been-allowed--inspector/ Well I hate to be the one who says "I told you so" but this is exactly what happens when you 'lower the bar', and actively recruit people based on their gender or colour of their skin, rather than whether they are actually the best person for the job. For those who've never seen it, "Police Academy" (1984) tells the story of what happens when a Mayor in a crime-ridden city orders standards to be lowered in order to recruit more police officers, and the plot follows a group of 'misfits' and their progression through training at the Police Academy. Fortunately being a 'feel-good' comedy, it works out in the end and the raw recruits come to the rescue when the city is beseiged by rioters.

A couple of years ago now, I read a couple of books by Andrew Johnson (long-time RichPlanet contributer) called "9/11: Finding The Truth" and "9/11: Holding The Truth". While at the time I found both books a bit tedious, what did fascinate me was how he detailed some of the 'inner machinations' of the "truther community", namely how certain factions fought to argue and bicker amongst themselves, with specific theories/ideas being dismissed/ridiculed. David Icke's "The Trigger" pretty much summed up things for me - so many people were arguing/bickering/theorising about 'how' 9/11 was 'done', yet very few people seemed that interested in 'why' it was done, and 'by whom'.

I received a bit of a tip-off from a contact I have (who I'm not prepared to name or share more about), who inadvertently revealed to me that apparently the Conservative party are making preparations to call a General Election for later this year, sometime in October. To be honest, I've had a feeling that this has been on the cards for sometime, and I thought it might have happened around the spring. You can already see the smaller parties such as UKIP, Heritage Party, Reform etc have put themselves on a 'war-footing', and the media are already hard at work 'conditioning' the public into voting for Labour. Which they will do in numbers, at least those who can be bothered to go and vote. There's also been a lot of publicity about the requirement to present photo ID when voting in person. So there you go, something to look forward to, having Sir Keir Starmer as your Prime Minister before the end of this year.

As well as the NHS and the police, Common Purpose are also sucking the life out of the education system. Teachers have been on strike today, and some of the reasons they are giving are more than about what they're being paid. Huge schools strike rally held in city centre as teacher says 'funding for everything has just gone' From: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/huge-schools-strike-rally-held-26129986 Rather than being standalone local authority controlled/funded schools, it seems to me that most schools now are either 'academies' or part of a larger 'trust' group. In essence, these trusts are corporate bodies, run like businesses (a la NHS), which receive huge sums of money from the government and local authority in order to fund them. No-one dares ask the question of whether the funding received is being used appropriately or not. Its the same with the NHS, the more money you throw at it, the less goes where it is badly needed (ie doctors, nurses and other 'frontline' staff), it gets siphoned or leeched off into private hands, through contracts or procurement, or paying trust heads and management huge salaries.

The thing is that I would consider myself to be an 'atheist' (or perhaps 'agnostic'?), but I understand the difference between right and wrong. (You don't need to be pious or religious to know what is acceptable or not) There are many 'influencers' now promoting Christianity as the 'solution' to the woes of the world, but in my opinion, this is all part of the 'trap', religion has always been a tool, a part of the 'control mechanism', if you believe in yourself and have your own independent thoughts, then you do not need to 'follow' or worship any kind of deity.

I completely agree, and I'm sick of our media shamelessly 'promoting' these people - and not just these 'grime gangster' types, but any other narcissist 'influencer' on TikTok or Instagram.

They were filming a 'music video'? Think the Sun has over-egged this particular story a bit. But having said that, Albanians have been coming freely to the UK for years, even when we were in the EU and they had little right to do so. Most of the illegals crossing the Channel in the last couple of years have apparently been Albanians, and they are still being 'welcomed' into the country. They soon disappear into the 'black economy', either working 'cash-in-hand' in some low-paid car wash, crammed together into tiny flats, or get recruited into drug trafficking. I have noticed recently in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham where I work, a growing number of what I would call "Eastern European-looking types" milling about, and I can't work out if they are Albanians or Ukrainians (as I don't understand their language), but what is clear to me is that they are very 'brazen' and confidently stride about with 'chips on their shoulders'. I've no problem with anyone coming from anywhere who wants to come to this country and make a good honest living and integrate into our society, but I can't be doing with accepting any old scum who makes no decent contribution.

BUT you only get these discounts IF you have a smart meter. It is just 'incentivising' people to switch to a smart meter. "Carrot and stick". Once you have a smart meter, then you're under their control. I wrote about this last year on my website: The real reason for ‘smart meters’ is becoming ever more apparent https://thegrumpyowl.co.uk/2022/06/27/the-real-reason-for-smart-meters-is-becoming-ever-more-apparent/ The other way of looking at this is that if energy suppliers can 'afford' to give out discounts like this, then perhaps they could afford to reduce their unit prices a bit, you know, make things fair on everybody. I'm with EDF and I signed up for a 3 year fixed rate tariff which runs until September 2024. Technically, they must be making a loss with me as a customer (my DD is £60 a month currently, and they're paying me back £67 a month until March) but there is nothing they can do while I sit tight here in my current property. It is my consideration that these energy price rises are all a massive contrivance with two aims: 1) kill off the smaller suppliers who just resell wholesale energy (ie they don't produce, but took advantage of the 'free market') leaving just the 'big six' to dominate and control the market 2) incentivise consumer take-up of smart meters with the ultimate aim of being able to charge more for energy when it is most 'in-demand' (think Uber "surge-pricing") Once smart meter adoption reaches 'critical mass' - ie a majority of household have one - then the agenda can progress further, and those whose energy usage can't be scrutinised and monitored can be punished with higher unit rates.