Some of my regular readers might realise that I have a thing about number plates. Something that caught my eye was the top image. At the time I was looking for a 725, however foreign plates can’t be counted. However it looked very much like a British plate, just styled as a German one. So once I got home I used wikipedia to double check.
Wiki says that plates are in the format of 1-3 letters for the place, then stickers to show the emission test and vehicle safety test, then 1-2 random letters, and then 1-4 random numbers (maximum number of characters is 8). So clearly the plate on the left is actually a GB plate just designed to look like a German one (example at the bottom).
I’ve now seen two in this format, so I’m guessing someone is producing them for homesick Germans. But as with other styled number plates unless they are in the offical typeface with the correct spacing they are illegal to drive with and will fail an MOT.
Brown does a funny U-turn
According to the BBC Brown defends ‘U-turn’ on 10p tax. Yet looking at the article and listening to what he has said I can’t see a U-turn.
I can see some distant promises to give old people some extra cash at winter, and some young people a bit more via the minimum wage (notice not actually via the government) and some more tax credits to those without children.
However here’s the problem, at the moment to get Working Tax Credits you need be earning less than £13,000 as a single person over 26, or £18,000 (combined income) as a couple over 26.
Meaning a married couple earning £9,000 each get NO tax credits, yet get hit with a 10% tax increase on their income.
Gordon Brown (who last time I checked was no longer the Chancellor) is still screwing over those on low incomes.
I get paid next Monday and for the first time my actuall wage will be less than last month, something that I never believed would happen with a Labour Government (well at least while my income was nowhere near the 40% rate).
Darling: I can’t rewrite Budget – Liar!
Alistair Darling today suggested that he couldn’t rewrite the budget. Almost trying to put the blame for the tax rise on one Gordon Brown. However he LIES!!!!!! On the 12th March 2008 he read out his first budget. It would have been possible for him in this one to either re-introduce the 10p tax band, or alternatively put up the tax free threshold so that no one was worse off. However the Labour Party seem to be a bit thick and didn’t realise that this was such a big issue that they would have ministers almost resigning, yet over a year ago I was already pointing out that low income earners would be worse off.
I expect that most of the shouting is to do with the local elections and that once May 1st is over you won’t see Darling making any attempt to help anyone out.
VW Vans Newark
On Lincs FM at the moment there is a radio advert for Volkswagen Vans in Newark. At the end of the ad they say find us by searching for VW Vans Newark on the web. Yet doing this doesn’t result in any expected websites like www.vw-vans-newark.co.uk or similar. Instead at the moment the top result is a Shop Locally (Yellow Pagesish) website.
So if you are looking for them, I can’t seem to find a local website, just this national one.
Altenatively you could go old skool by visiting them in person at:
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, 2 Northern Rd, Newark, Nottinghamshire, NG24 2ET (T: 01636 704484).
Mario Kart Wii
Are you a LibDemBlogger? Do you have Mario Kart Wii? Are you online?
Fancy sharing your friends codes in the comments so we can have a battle royale?
If so leave your Mario Kart Wii Friend Code in the comments. Don’t worry both sides need to add each other before they become friends, so make sure that you add everyone you want to be friends with.
My code is: 4425 1593 1549
Worst Criminal in the World?
Look at the bottom right of this picture at the purse theif.
Great Northern Terrace – Very well done!
One of the things I noticed about Lincoln compared to Hemel Hempstead is the way in which the tip is organised.
In Hemel (Herts County Council) you had big skips with metal stairs. The staff were always unfriendly and looked aghast as you started filling their bins in case you might actually give them some work to do.
Where as Lincoln (Lincolnshire County Council) it’s in one big loop. You can pull over, drop off, drive forward a bit, empty some more and as it’s ramped there are no stairs. They have collections for Glass, Plastic, Paper, Clothes, Cardboard, Tetrapak, Oil, Batteries, Garden, Electrical, Rubble plus others which I’ve yet to spot. As soon as you stop a member of staff is willing to help get stuff out of the car, sort it into the correct containers or point you in the right direction and because of this they are able to hit 75%+ on recycling what arrives every month.
W960 + Picodrive + mobiPad + Wiimote = Fun!
I’ve just managed to test mobiPad with a W960. The software allows button presses on the Wiimote to be sent to the phone via Bluetooth.
Having it run in the background with Picodrive allows me to play Micro Machines. The quality of the emulator is brilliant and the response time from the wiimote is fast.
Just need to look at some of the other emu’s now.
So what do those under-age drinkers drink?
The Echo last week ran with a story about the Police confiscating alcohol from under-age drinkers. They published a table of what was taken and had a picture of the haul.
Now was it like what the Tories were saying? That the problem is with alcopops and super-strength booze?
Nope, here are the figures:
Beer – 157.69 litres (78%)
Cider – 25.52 litres (13%)
Wine – 7.5 litres (4%)
Spirits – 4.2 litres (2%)
Alcopops – 5.72 litres (3%)
and whilst the beer and cider figures don’t separate normal from strong, the picture clearly shows a large number of cans, bottles and boxes of Carling, Fosters, Stella and Carlsberg.
Doctor Who Season “4” trailer on-line
45 minutes ago the BBC first aired the new Doctor Who trailer, it’s already online via their Doctor Who Site.
It seems that U.N.I.T. will be making there appearance in this season (after the name dropping in Reset, and then the raid in Fragments in Torchwood) and for those who haven’t seen the spoilers in the tabloids, both Martha and Rose seem to be making a comeback.