Westministenders: Don't forget to stockpile. Again.

[RedToothBrush]

The government is telling pharmacists and drug manufactures to stockpile drugs ahead of the end of transition on 31st December.

In the middle of a pandemic.

What could go wrong?

Peregrina Yup. They've a big distribution centre near me and are creating loads more jobs.

Pasghetti regular stock rotation - although it is a pita sitting on a cold kitchen floor with packets, jars and tins everywhere

My dishwasher is broken too.
I loathe and detest washing up.

Don't forget to stockpile?

As soon as I could get Asda orders it was building back up. We are going on holiday ( booked pre Covid) and getting the suitcases out...I have found a pack of loo roll I had forgotten about.absolutely dreading the return home sorting out the understairs cupboard before we have even gone. Today is emptying the car, and repacking it day. Taking several days worth of food so we can get chance to find the best local shops for safety.

Every 4- 6 months I pull out all the stuff and rearrange in date order. Only long life stuff goes to the bottom/back/ understairs.

And we don't have a dishwasher... Must get on with that washing up

As noted earlier - the huge secondary blast was almost certainly thermobaric - caused by ignition of a cloud of dust (eg flour) or petrol - so it's possible that a grain silo, breached by the initial explosion, was actually the source of that blast

I have a dishwasher, but I've never even switched it on
I wash the few daily bits by hand
I live alone and only do v simple lazy cooking - I live off salads with protein in summer

“Germany will not pander to UK folly”
“What can be learned from these figures is that for the Government in Berlin the British economy is just not important enough to risk threatening the EU’s internal market which is Germany’s economic and political life guarantee.”

But.. but.. but.. they need us more than we need them!?!

This is so hard to watch.

PMK

I read - not sure where today that 80% of the wheat Lebanon consumes is imported through a narrow corridor at the heart of the explosion. This was from the perspective of looking ahead at food supply issues created by this. But it would make sense that there would be large quantities stored in the vicinity awaiting distribution.
I was also looking at why Beirut's economy had taken a particular hammering in the last 3(?)years. The civil unrest has been simmering for what seems the whole of my lifetime. Did you know that 30% of the population are now Syrian refugees.

Trumps pick for German ambassador is particularly disturbing.... I hope Merkel refuses his appointment

Ammonium nitrate reactions can be thermobaric too.

Back to Beirut - I just watched a really clear video which show quite a substantial fire, and then the massive explosion. The massive explosion will be the fertiliser I would have thought?

Thanks Sabrina.

www.moonofalabama.org/

Beirut Blast Wrap-up

Yesterday 2.750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, exploded. The blast killed more than 100 people and wounded more than 4,000. Many buildings in Beirut were severely damaged. The pressure wave broke windows as far 10 miles away. Beirut's port is mostly destroyed. Lebanon's national grain reserve, stored in grain silos next to the explosion, is gone.

This comes on top of an economic and currency meltdown in Lebanon and during a exponential growth phase of the Coronovirus epidemic.

In 2013 Lebanese authorities arrested a ship (pdf) that had been abandoned by its owner:

On 23/9/2013, m/v Rhosus, flying the Moldovian flag, sailed from Batumi Port, Georgia heading to Biera in Mozambique carrying 2,750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate in bulk.

En route, the vessel faced technical problems forcing the Master to enter Beirut Port. Upon inspection of the vessel by Port State Control, the vessel was forbidden from sailing. Most crew except the Master and four crew members were repatriated and shortly afterwards the vessel was abandoned by her owners after charterers and cargo concern lost interest in the cargo. The vessel quickly ran out of stores, bunker and provisions.
...
Owing to the risks associated with retaining the Ammonium Nitrate on board the vessel, the port authorities discharged the cargo onto the port’s warehouses. The vessel and cargo remain to date in port awaiting auctioning and/or proper disposal.

The ammonium nitrate was stored in a quayside warehouse. The picture shows the 1,000 kilogram big bags labeled "Nitroprill HD" in bad storage conditions at the 'Hanger 12' warehouse in Beirut.

We had a Sunak supper last night at a lovely pub overlooking the sea.
It made us change which night we went out, no more.

For those wondering which independents near them are doing it ...
www.tax.service.gov.uk/eat-out-to-help-out/find-a-restaurant/

Next week we will go to one of our favourite independents - as they will have finished building their outdoor dining area

There is more on the Russian ship in the Guardian Little is known about the Russian owner of the Rhosus, the cargo ship impounded in Beirut in 2014, whose captain had referred to its freight of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertiliser as a “floating bomb”.

That ammonium nitrate is believed to have fuelled the devastating explosion that has left more than 100 dead in Beirut. Former crew members said the ship was owned by Igor Grechushkin, a Russian national believed to be living in Cyprus, where he holds either citizenship or residency. Grechushkin, a native of the far-eastern city of Khabarovsk, is reported to have managed Teto Shipping, which owned the Rhosus.

The ship arrived in Beirut in 2013 while sailing from Georgia to Mozambique. It was prevented from leaving the Beirut port in 2014 over an unspecified dispute, either because the ship was deemed not seaworthy or because the owner had failed to pay the necessary fees to the port.

It was then that Grechushkin is said to have walked away from the ship, refusing to answer calls or negotiate with the port authorities for the release of his sailors.

In complaints to the press in 2014, former crew members said they had been “abandoned” in Beirut and had not been paid their wages for nearly a year. “The owner [of the ship] has virtually abandoned the ship and its crew,” wrote the ship’s former captain. “Salaries are not paid, supplies are not purchased. The shipowner has refused the cargo.”

A deleted LinkedIn profile lists Grechushkin as living in Cyprus and as working as a manager at Unimar Service Ltd. Calls to a company with a similar name and profile, Unimar Safety Services and Equipment, on Wednesday were not answered. Calls to a number for Grechushkin listed by the aggrieved crew members also went unanswered.

The letter, which was sent to Russian journalists by the Rhosus’s former captain in 2014, also complained about being “held hostage” onboard the ship. The Beirut authorities “don’t want an abandoned ship at port, especially with a cargo of explosives, which is what ammonium nitrate is. That is, this is a floating bomb, and the crew is a hostage aboard this bomb.”

The mostly Ukrainian crew were held onboard the ship for nearly a year before they were released. The ammonium nitrate was confiscated and held at the port in a warehouse.

The Russian television station Ren TV published a photograph on Wednesday of a man it said was Grechushkin in tight-fitting jeans and sunglasses sitting astride a motorcycle. The television station did not indicate the source of the photograph.

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/04/beirut-explosion-huge-blast-port-lebanon-capital

twitter.com/Andrew__Roth/status/1290924211414990849

I wonder if he goes to Lebedev's parties

Any minute now Iain Duncan Smith is going to pull off a mask and reveal himself to be Chris Grayling in disguise.

Not only did he argue that no more time was needed to review the WA back in 2019, he now claims there was very damaging small print that they missed.

Couldn't make it up.

We went out for Dishy Rishy's dishes yesterday. We didn't move the date, it was planned and the first time I have been out out, inside. The restaurant was packed and the waiter commented that Tuesday night was usually the graveyard shift. It was an expensive ish restaurant too, independent, French. But £10 each does make a difference. The restaurant has done well in lockdown too providing deluxe meal kits with Chateaubriand / Lobster which it is continuing.

Mockers? I really enjoyed their posts, sad if they have been driven away. But i know that I have been unable to join these threads in the way I once did for the last year as I dealt with multiple family crises. Basically been in lockdown since July last year, it is just our shit luck spread worldwide and the world joined in. I hope that is the explanation, though without the shit luck. Still appreciate these threads as a venue of reason and information and grateful to Red .

@GrumpiestOldWoman

Any minute now Iain Duncan Smith is going to pull off a mask and reveal himself to be Chris Grayling in disguise.

Not only did he argue that no more time was needed to review the WA back in 2019, he now claims there was very damaging small print that they missed.

Couldn't make it up.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-ian-duncan-smith-brexit-withdrawal-agreement-a9653966.html

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/eu-responds-to-iain-duncan-smith-over-brexit-1-6776284

And our 17 year old dishwasher decided to die in April, it is integrated so beyond my installation capabilities and I didn't really want the old dishwasher rusting in the garden. None of the online companies were doing installation so we have had precarious dish pyramids balanced on my small drainer for weeks. Life is too short for drying up. So relieved when a local shop started installing again, more because of the storage the new machine provides for dirty dishes than the actual washing up. I also realise that as with cars it is probably an ecological crime to hang on to an old appliance too long as the technology has moved on so much....

William Hill, W.H. Smiths ... the alphabetical shrinking continues.

Although it makes sense, ahead of a no deal Brexit. Shave off any surplus costs and you might just get by.

MudDude
@MudDude4
·
1h
Replying to
@Andrew__Roth
I know this doesn't make sense to anyone not from a coastal area, but "Russian/Cypriot bro is so bad at shipping business practices he accidentally destroys Beirut" is so depressingly on brand it reads like a bad joke.

Also hoping Mockers is ok, also enjoyed their posts.
I don’t have a dishwasher, Dh who is very laid back & amenable to anything I like/want flatly refuses to have one in the house he says they are a glorified wet cupboard, he does the washing up 99% of the time so am not really suffering.