Frozen Britain seen from above-7 January(yesterday)

This striking image taken by Nasa's Terra satellite on 7 January shows the UK deep in the clutches of the current cold snap. (my view)-I'M HAVING THAT"THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW"FLASH BACK AND FEELING- told you this would happen baby! xxx

Talks to offload swine flu vaccine under way

The government is making plans to offload millions of doses of swine flu vaccine amid predictions a "third wave" of the pandemic is unlikely to happen. Officials are in discussion with manufacturer GSK over contracts for remaining doses purchased by the UK. Options include selling surplus vaccine and donating it to poorer countries but a stockpile will remain in place. Cases of swine flu have now dropped dramatically to well below what is usually seen in winter flu outbreaks. Last week France announced it was selling millions of doses of swine flu vaccine after finding they had more than enough to cope with the outbreak. The UK bought 60m doses of swine flu vaccine from GSK and 30m from Baxter but the smaller contract had a break clause should the doses not be needed. To date 23.9m doses of GSK vaccine have been delivered for immunisation of priority groups in the UK as well as 5m Baxter vaccines. An official figure for the cost of the vaccine to the UK has never been given but it is likely to run into hundreds of millions.

Discussions

In addition to selling or donating vaccine, another option under consideration is to keep supplies of the vaccine adjuvant, the booster chemical which is produced separately from the vaccine, to use in future pandemics. It has a shelf life of five years. Government immunisation lead Professor David Salisbury said: "We are in discussion with GSK about future supplies of the vaccine. "We have to keep a stockpile for ourselves anyway because we don't know what's going to happen in 2010. "If there was a resurgence we would look very foolish if we had disposed of a valuable stockpile." He added that it remains important for high-risk groups, such as those with underlying illness and the under fives to be immunised as they are more likely to have severe complications. Although the number of cases of swine flu has fallen to a low of below 5,000 in England in the past week, the number of people in hospital after being infected has not dropped to the same extent. There has also been a striking increase in critical care admissions in the over 65s who make up a quarter of the 103 patients currently taking up intensive care beds. This could partly be due to the cold weather but the reason is not yet entirely clear. Since swine flu was first reported in April 2009 there have been 360 deaths across the UK - 251 in England, 28 in Wales, 64 in Scotland and 17 in Northern Ireland - mostly in people with underlying health conditions. Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said they would be calculating the economic costs of the pandemic at a later date. "We're in the 21st century and people do not need to die from vaccine preventable illnesses. "We want to prevent deaths, people going to hospital and that's generally been the approach we have taken." Ian Dalton, national director of NHS flu resilience, said NHS staff were making huge efforts to keep services going amid pressures caused by the current cold weather. "All the work done with flu preparedness will help us in the adverse conditions," he said. (my view)-All of the people who died had conditions that either caused illness and they were going to die anyway or had other life threatening conditions that had NOTHING to do with this"Swine Flu"....they blamed the deaths on this made up flu to scare people into submission and to give up some freedom and info so the government can spy on the you the people,i live in a town full of people sneezing,vomiting and coughing and over 80% we're told they had swine flu....guess what? before they were vomiting ect...they had NORMAL colds but then they had the"Swine Flu" jab..and then they started to vomit and got real sick(the jab made them sicker to fool them into thinking they have swine flu) even in town they still went out and"EXPOSED"others to "wine flu"....I NEVER GOT THE JAB AND NEVER GOT SICK OR ILL...this proves"Swine Flu"is NOT REAL

UK cold snap plunges to new low

The UK remains gripped by sub-zero temperatures after the Met Office recorded the winter's coldest day yet. The mercury plunged to -22.3C (-8.1F) in the Highland village of Altnaharra earlier and UK temperatures generally remained stuck well below freezing. Roads and pavements remain icy, with salt supplies "stretched", while thousands of schools are shut. Rail and air travel are again plagued by delays. Severe weather warnings of heavy snow are in place for eastern England. Speaking at a London drop-in centre, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the "spirit of the British people to support each other in times of difficulty" had emerged across the UK. He is chairing a ministerial meeting at the Cabinet office of ministers and agencies to discuss responses to the severe weather. The weekend could be colder, with Arctic conditions forecast to last at least another week. Motorway hard shoulders are no longer being gritted, with the government prioritising salt for the worst-affected regions. Supplies have been close to running out in some areas, with many councils restricting gritting to major roads. Thieves using a lorry with heavy-lifting gear stole a grit bin with two tonnes of salt intended for streets and footpaths from a road in Newton Mearns outside Glasgow. Milk deliveries have also been disrupted, with tankers struggling to reach dairy farms. Some farmers have had to dump supplies as few have large storage facilities while, in Scotland, several barn roofs have collapsed under the weight of snow. Electricity suppliers say "a few hundred" homes in southern England are without power, after 5,000 were cut off by weather-related problems on Thursday. Thousands of schools remain shut, with exam candidates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland warned they could have to wait five months to sit GCSE and A-level modules if weather prevents them taking them next week. Exams watchdog Ofqual said in cases where candidates would not have a second chance to sit papers in the summer, applications could be made for "special consideration". This involves pupils disadvantaged by circumstances being awarded up to an extra 5% of the maximum marks. The Department for Children, Schools and Families insists schools should stay open "wherever reasonably practicable" during severe weather. A spokesman said the focus of government concern was solely on persistent, unauthorised absence and it was up to head teachers to use common sense as to whether to authorise a child's absence in severe weather. Travel problems persist, with passengers advised to check their flight's status before going to the airport: Easyjet cancelled about 30 flights at airports including Gatwick, Liverpool, Belfast and Stansted. All airports are now open, though suffering from widespread delays British Airways said it had asked passengers on some flights arriving at Heathrow's Terminal 5 to leave without their luggage, with bags being sent on to them later Train companies operating revised timetables include East Coast, ScotRail, First Great Western, South West Trains, Southern and Southeastern, while Eurostar has cancelled several services, Rail passengers travelling through Birmingham are being delayed by up to two hours because of signalling problems at New Street. This affects some Virgin Trains, Arriva Trains Wales, CrossCountry, London Midland and Wrexham and Shropshire services, The outside lane of the M40 was closed for much of its length throughout Oxfordshire due to snow and ice, and the A3(M) in Hampshire faced northbound restrictions between junctions three and two, In north-east England, there are delays on the southbound A1(M) near Washington after a crash caused the closure of one lane, Snow and ice forced the closure of a lane of the M58 near Kirkby, Merseyside, and one in each direction on the M48 Severn Bridge Updates can be found at BBC Travel News, The weather is causing major disruption to the weekend's sporting programme, with football's Premier League among those affected, The RAC said its patrol teams had attended 5,000 call-outs by midday on Friday and 250,000 since the cold weather began on 18 December. The organisation said it was receiving about 1,500 calls an hour - more than twice as many as normal. The busiest areas today were Manchester and the Wirral, Scotland, the West Midlands and Wales. Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has insisted there are "plenty of supplies" of gas, with storage about 70% full, and that domestic customers need not worry. Some 27 firms - 12 in the East Midlands and 15 in the North West - are still using alternative fuels after National Grid triggered a clause in their contracts to turn off gas supplies at times of high demand. At one stage on Thursday, 95 major firms were affected. The Met Office recorded the UK's lowest temperature on Friday morning in Altnaharra, Sutherland, while England's low was -17C (1.4F) in Woodford, Cheshire. Sennybridge in Powys was the coldest place in Wales at -14.7 (5.5F), while Northern Ireland's low was -11.1 (12F) at Lough Fea, County Tyrone. In Bristol Harbour, the temperature was low enough that the sea began to freeze over. The lowest ever recorded temperature in the UK was -27.2C (-17F) in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, in 1895 and 1982, and in Altnaharra in 1995. Temperatures are expected to stay around freezing throughout Friday and forecasters say winds could make it feel even colder.

Old TVs ditched over digital fear

TV viewers are throwing away their sets in the mistaken belief that they could stop working when the analogue signal is turned off. Argyll and Bute Council said it had seen a "significant increase" in the number of electrical items being taken to amenity sites for recycling - many of them are thought to be analogue TVs. In 2008/09, 840 tonnes of electrical goods from the region were recycled. That figure is expected to rise by some 12% to about 940 tonnes this year. The chair of the council's Environment Policy and Performance Group, Councillor Donald Macdonald, said some people still seemed to be confused over what would and would not work after the switchover. He said: "There are many people out there who believe that they have to replace their analogue TVs with new digital models in order to be able to receive digital transmissions. "This is not true. With very rare exceptions, all TVs can be converted to digital with a digital box - even black and white models. "So there is no need to buy a new TV unless you actually want one." The body co-ordinating the switchover - Digital UK - has been working hard to stress that virtually any television can be converted to digital. Last year it uncovered a restored pre-war television near Edinburgh which was switched over to digital within minutes in a "ceremony" performed by John Logie Baird's grandson. The analogue signal has already been turned off in several parts of the UK, including most of Wales and the former Border TV, Granada TV and Westcountry TV regions. So far the process has gone smoothly and special help has been available to elderly and vulnerable people. Additional channels Analogue TV will be switched off gradually in the northern half of Scotland between May and October. The signal will be switched off around Oban, Mull and northern Argyll in October, with the rest of Argyll and the Central Belt following in 2011. People who do not already have digital television are being urged to consider their options in good time. The Freeview service - received through normal aerials - will become available to virtually everyone at the same time as the analogue service is switched off. But people who get their signals from relay transmitters will only get a modest number of additional channels, including the BBC's extra services. Some experts say that people who opt to wait for Freeview to become available in their area could buy their set-top box in advance to make sure there is not a rush or a shortage when the switchover actually happens. Even the oldest televisions can usually be converted to receive digital

Man with genitals in pipe cut free

A man who went to casualty with his penis stuck in a steel pipe had to be cut free by firefighters using a metal grinder. Medics at Southampton General Hospital could not get the man's penis out of the stainless steel pipe because the restricted blood flow had caused it to become aroused, so they called in Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service. They turned up with a special equipment unit from St Mary's station in Southampton and seven firefighters to help in what a spokesman said was a "delicate operation". The firefighters used the four-and-a-half-inch grinder to cut the pipe from around the man's penis and it took about 30 minutes. The patient was given an anaesthetic and his penis was left bruised and swollen but otherwise unharmed. The anxious man, aged about 40, gave hospital staff no explanation about how the pipe got stuck after he turned up on Tuesday morning. A Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: "Initially the crew did not have the appropriate cutting equipment to free the man. "It was a very delicate operation that required a very steady hand and the crew was worried about things getting too hot during the cutting. "It's certainly an unusual call-out and I'm sure the man won't be getting into that situation again."(my view)-He gave hospital staff no explanation......how about he wanted to releave himself either by wanking or fucking....so he fucked the pipe! hows that for the truth?