Rob D

That is a bloody monster! Can't remember seeing the original thread so thanks for re posting.

Just watching this - I know it's a long one - someone else posted it earlier in the thread I think... the hour plus put me off initially I only just got round to listening to it [as it's a long one!]. But worth it as another viewpoint and this was in Sept 2015.

Yep - as they say never let a good crisis go to waste when you can further your own agenda in a righteous appearing manner.

Yep and I don't quite get this 'cash grab' of Russians who may have nothing to do or even strongly disagree with what is happening. How do they judge whose assets to seize? Do you need to be over a few £million and where will those assets go further down the line? Does it start with the uber rich and then start filtering down? Do you get a receipt? 'Russian nationals will also soon have a limit to how much they can hold in British bank accounts, however the limit is yet to be set.' How does the average Russian person have any hand in what a leader does? Not sure all this freezing of bank accounts is that healthy [like in Canada for the truckers protest]. Or at least there should be some evidence on someone and some sort of process and transparency before doing it. Ukraine: UK to freeze assets of major Russian banks in new sanctions WWW.CITYAM.COM All major Russian banks will be shut out from operating in the UK and large Russian firms will be blocked from raising...

Yep I think you are both being insulting but I see Andy as more an 'arbtalk local' who should be little more understanding 😅 Emotions are so hot right now - probably none of us is the enemy but playing out to our own anxiety and fears - and who could blame anyone for that?

Yep I'm not saying he isn't being insulting - but two wrongs don't make a right. And his wife is Ukranian - he's directly involved - and you've made up the scenario that if he doesn't fly over there and take part somehow he's not allowed to have strong viewpoints? He gets to feel very strongly about it without having to do anything to prove himself. And are we helping? As in I genuinely have no faith in the governments motives behind anything they do. The sanctions they are imposing will not hurt Putin as much as normal people. And for all we know it could simply be a big wealth grab for the West. £100 billion grabbed - £2 billion in aid back - thanks very much! [this is a pure guess]. Maybe we are maybe we aren't. We just don't know. We get fed narratives which incite our emotions. I try not to watch the main stream news these days as it effects me so much. We gone straight from Covid to this - it's seamless worry and anxiety.

Yep - and I wonder how it ranks if you're the one who actually pulls the trigger? Being more philosophical - can you say 'I was obeying orders'. Can you really imagine the children you are about to torch and the physical pain and suffering you are about to cause on people that had nothing to do with it? It's not one that can be easily answered if answered at all.

You're just being rude here mate in my opinion. No need for this humiliating comment. He's upset and probably knows more about the situation than you. It would be good to have people on here that can contribute from a different view point particularly those that have more direct links [even if you disagree with them]. Yep he was rude in his initial comment - but can't you shoulder some of that without always needing to always retaliate?

Agreed - and I've always had plenty of time for both Neil Oliver and Russel Brand the last 2 years. One difference 'these days' is at least we do have more freedom to communicate and listen to other people. As much as there is censorship attempts on some platforms on the whole we can type and say our opinions freely. For instance on here - there is no threat of typing something against the government and then having the door knocked later that evening. So there is a chance things could be different.

He'll be thinking 'maybe we'll see how this goes before we try and take Taiwan - it's not looking as easy as my buddy was saying it was going to be'

State of the art and now they can be tested in real life scenarios.

It's pretty difficult to look at other events when main stream media can flood the news with whatever they choose. Yemen is such a mess and pretty hard to watch some of the videos - but I suppose not as 'news worthy' as a nice fresh conflict. I guess people get bored of seeing children getting killed, wounded and dying of starvation. The only ones that seem guaranteed to win whatever conflict is going on are those companies that make the weapons that are used. Plus they get a real life testing arena so they can improve what they sell. Below graph is a search on the largest exporters of arms. If there were no wars and conflicts going on - how would they make money? By having lots of conflict you not only get to sell lots of product - but that product gets destroyed - which means you get to sell more [improved] product. Plus you have plenty of power as various leaders would want to keep you onside.

One different and slightly bizarre aspect to this war is all the vids that are posted on youtube and social media. You can watch events online where normal people are filming and posting what happens. Not sure whether this is good or bad - just saying it's a new aspect that probably has not been present in a war before. I hope it helps stop any atrocities that took place unfilmed in previous conflicts.

Hotel opposite there is some sort of rickety building on the flat roof - the front half started to tear away. It looked like it could fall into the road where there were still people walking and driving. Told the hotel to call the fire brigade to close the road [which they have done]. In the end the front of this has now flapped and blown away backwards away from the road. One of the firemen got blown off his feet! Also heard that other places in town have lost cladding etc so it is def one notch above a normal storm.

Yep - best to be more on the safe side. It is proper windy now - couple people now struggling to walk outside and I wouldn't like to go out in it.

I suppose it's just very hard to get this sort of weather right - certainly there are some vicious gusts - last night it was saying 80mph now but seems less now.

Yep I'm thinking we drive but possibly lunchtime - this is supposed to be peak wind now for us and as said people are out walking their dogs on the coast path and seems like a normal very windy day.

On the North coast of Cornwall right on the red zone - yep it's windy but with none of the build up would have just said another windy Feb day and thought nothing of it. Typically were due to fly Newquay to Gatwick today [cancelled] but the Sat flight going to Turkey seems to be going ahead... Now got the decision of do I drive to Gatwick and if so when? Or cancel everything... be interested to hear what everyone else is seeing and opinions.

I don't think so - and that's what makes it such a priceless post!

Maybe - but then what's your time worth? Efficiency goes down and one chain de rail at the wrong time means 2 hours lost which then dissolves all savings to date as well as the headaches. I think if it was worth doing the above you'd be doing it already. Once your time is worth more then it's worth buying new stuff as less chances of it going wrong. And anyway if you lot kept all your guidebars longer who'd be buying ours 😅 On a serious note - stock up now - be prepared. Your cash is devaluing at 5% a year so turn it into something that will go up in price but maintain it's value. That's what we are doing - our cash goes into products today which cost less than tomorrow. We keep stocked at lower prices for longer. If you did the same then you'd be better off in the long run and you would not have the drama of 'if I ordered it now would I get it for the weekend as I got a big job Sat afternoon'.

You don't have a choice which is sort of what inflation is - our suppliers put their prices up - we then put our prices up [if we put them down we'd make no money and there would be no incentive to supply anything]. Also China shipping prices - which used to be crazy cheap - are now 600% from Jan 2021 to Jan2022 - I'm sure there is some cartel at work as still can't figure why that much. Think your own situation - if all your costs went up ie. fuel, insurance, chainsaws, wages - would you then put your prices down to help stop inflation? You'd make no money so you'd go out of business. In fact soon you will be part of inflation yourself and likely increasing prices. So as our suppliers are increasing prices, then distributors like us increase prices, then it'll be tree worker types like you and that's inflation. There's a bit of a delay ie. we have pretty good stocking so we delayed putting our prices up as the older stock we paid at the old prices - but in the end it's got to be done.

Up to a maximum of 10 years?! What are they thinking - for a peaceful protest... but seems their petty and self serving laws didn't go through... I give £50 a month to these folks [though clearly don't always read the newsletters cover to cover] - and seems old gov are not going to be locking anyone up for protesting anytime soon. 'In a night of crushing defeats for the Government’s campaign to restrict and criminalise protest, Peers voted 14 times to block its proposals yesterday and this morning (17-18 January). A series of powers put forward by the Government at the eleventh hour, such as the creation of “protest banning orders” and new “locking on” offences, were consigned to history as there will not be another chance for the Government to table them. Other powers that were in the original Bill, such as sweeping powers to restrict protest on the basis of “noise”, were defeated but the Government may try to table them again when the Bill returns to the Commons.' VICTORY OVER PROTEST RESTRICTIONS SHOWS UNITED FRONT CAN DEFEAT GOVERNMENT POWER-GRAB - Liberty WWW.LIBERTYHUMANRIGHTS.ORG.UK

I don't see how they have the resources to lock everyone up - plus it's expensive at around £350 a day. I'm still going to attend. The protest I went to there was everyday type folk there - all of this is scare tactics IMO.

Nudge on this - they are here - prices going up over weekend on all range. Get your orders in now at these prices.

It's pretty much most things where there's a buck to be made for those that pull the strings. And good to know that COVID or no COVID the banks have made record profits and allocated record bonuses [another 2008 around the corner?]. But also closing their local branches 'for health reasons and to keep us safe'. Nurse's pay rise is I think 3% in a time of inflation measured at 4-5% [by official figures]. Oh and the threat of being sacked for not getting jabbed... I went on my first protest a few weeks ago - it won't be the last. What a load of old bulls testicles! Britain's biggest banks preparing to trigger bonus bonanza | This is Money WWW.THISISMONEY.CO.UK Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest will reveal the bumper payout over the next fortnight.