Peewit

^^ This. I like to up at least an hour before I have to leave the house. At least two cups of tea, a light breakfast to wake up the metabolism and a top-up feed at 10 am break. I'm properly awake and ready to get going, and in the summer when I'm on the building work I'm saved the horrors of a reeking portable site loo.

I wish this stupid government (well, all governments) wouldn't keep pushing people to smother their lofts in fibreglass wool. It's an inefficient toxic irritant, a vermin trap, it places useful extra space out of commission and it's the wrong way to insulate a roof. It's a vastly better to insulate between the rafters with PIR insulation board (Kingspan etc) with more overlaid on the underside of the rafters and boarded over. Loft space needs venting, either with roof vent of air bricks if it's a gable end but you get a "warm roof", less condensation and no mildew problems where the wool bridges the top of the walls and the roof slope. Lagging the ceiling joist leaves a cold loft space. Water vapour condenses on the underside of the roof and drips back down onto the wool. A warm roof gives a loft space that's the same climate as the rest of the house. It's healthier and more efficient. Anyone who's reroofing a slate or tile house should always dig a little deeper and get the roof properly insulated while they're at it. It will pay you back and leave you with a clean, dry, healthy loft space.

Probably all part pf the plan. Empty properties can be compulsorily purchased and given to illegal immigrants; airbnb's can be taxed to perdition and the plots of demolished dwellings can be covered in solar panels.

Palestine Action is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK. Therefore anyone convicted of committing a crime in its name is guilty of terrorism. In which case the sentences seem light. In any case, calling for a supposed genocide to be ended by instituting another genocide as at least a crime against logic.

Generally omnivores don't eat carnivores. Carnivores, unless they're carrion feeders, usually don't either. Meat eating predators that hunt fresh prey tend to eat planters eaters. That's kind of a rule that works for me as well.

Jan Andrews.

I was told on my DSC1 that allowing a projectile to cross a boundary counted as aggravated trespass. The thing with UK firearms regulations is a lot of them have never been tested in court. Until they're nailed down and a precedent set by a judicial judgement there's a certain amount that's open to interpretation. The wise shooter errs on the side of caution. Well, this one does anyway.

I've never skinned one. They just felt quite flabby when you pick up the carcase. Could be thick skin though - they do have a pretty tough hide.

I grew up around Romany gypsies. There were various local families. Most had bought their own land but still lived in vans. Romany gypsies and modern eastern European Roma are completely different people. Thy may have a very distant racial connection but culturally they're worlds apart. Though I'm sure someone will be along to tell me I'm talking rubbish. That seems to be how things work. The ones I knew would be seriously offended if you called them travellers. Some of the older folk were distinctly dark - hair, eyes and skin, and they were given to using old gypsy words and phrases. The young lads who were my age I counted as friends. We knocked about together, went to the same pubs and generally rubbed along OK. There were a few ding-dongs but that usually involved excess beer and competition over some girl. Hardly unique to gypsies. The old man, the "Boss" was quite a character. Hard as nails, fond of a punch-up (especially with the police) but he was also quite a laugh and was always friendly to us youngsters. Sometimes you'd bump into him in a pub slightly the worse for wear, often after a day at a horse sale, and in fighting mood. But he never ever picked on us youngsters who he knew. If he was in that mood he'd just wave us away and say not now. I'll say one thing for them. They were never bullies. Any of them would go toe to toe with any man. But there'd be a challenge and unless that challenge was taken up, nothing happened. They never went throwing their weight about or picking on people. Which couldn't be said for certain non-gypsy lads. If gypsies from outside the area turned up at our local and fancied a dust up with us gorgias, our local gypsy mates would intervene and stick up for us. "Oh no you don't. This man's a friend of mine" etc. They were rough and ready but decent lads at heart. The big man's wife was the epitome of the traditional Romany gypsy. Eyes as black as coal, black curly hair and enormous gold ear rings. She was also extremely house proud. Their van was immaculate and whenever I was invited in for a cup of tea I got her best bone china cup and saucer. I used to sell scrap lead to them when I worked in the roofing trade. They paid a fair price. The lads I knocked about with are grandads now. Still living in the same place. Still regulars in the village pub and mix in fine with the locals.

I really don't care tbh.

That was my understanding. I was born in Dorset and remember the GDSF from the mid '70's when is was at Stourpaine Bushes and had things like a boxing booth and a wall of death. I stopped going about 20 years ago. It had become very corporate. The last time I was there I remember being confronted by a 60 foot screen advertising Citroen cars. You had to wade through that kind of crap to find the steam. Gypsies (proper ones - Romanies, not pikies or "travellers" - whatever they are ) were always a big part of the fair from the day it started. They turned up in traditional coloured vans and weren't really any bother to anyone. Once at Stourpaine when I was about 12 I witnessed a very messy public brawl between a man in his twenties and a middle aged man in a tweed suit and trilby hat. The older man had his trousers near torn off him and a severely blooded face and was clearly on the losing end but fought on ferociously. It was not an edifying spectacle. But they were not Gypsies, they were fairground people. The two are often confused but they are quite different communities. By the end I don't think there were that many true Romanies still going.

I've noticed that. Shame.

I was expecting it.

Migrant workers are not covered by minimum wage legislation in the UK so employers can pay migrants less. The shortfall is made up by them being permitted to bring in family members who they cannot support from their income and who are then prioritised for social housing and welfare without the requirement to look for work. UK workers can't do this so at a stroke it becomes an economic no-brainer to employ migrants instead of British workers. It's a system tailor-made to create an addiction to migrant labour, to force down wages and to unleash a incoming migration tidal wave. The solution is not to increase the minimum wage but to get rid of it altogether at let the market set the rate. If you pay too little - or pay a low wage for longer than a probationary period, which used to be the case before the minimum wage was introduced - no one will apply for your vacancy. And deploy welfare more intelligently so it really is just a safety net in times of hardship only for those who actually need it, and incentivise work and make it pay. Also close the borders and deport migrants sitting here on benefits for life. If an employer wants to hire someone from overseas they should be able to prove that they were unable to recruit a suitable candidate from the domestic population and they should be required to sponsor the migrant worker and underwrite their social welfare so that no one who is not a British citizen will ever become a burden on the state. That's how other countries, like Australia, do it.

I think it depends on your FEO and their knowledge (or lack of it) of guns. When I was in Dorset my FEO would not condition HMR for foxes because he said it was inadequate and if you put down fox control - as opposed to just "vermin"- as a reason to possess you were unlikely to get it. A correct decision in my view. The HMR is not a fox rifle. A cf .22 is perfect. Some FEOs know their stuff and some haven't a clue. IMO FEOs should not be recruited sideways from within the police force. They should come from ex-military/security personnel and the professional shooting world so they have a solid knowledge of firearms.