Squaredy

Is that what you call warm?!?

What a character; such a great commentator, building the suspense; sometimes when nothing is even happening. And who could forget his snooker player impersonations?

Yes you are right the greatest number is no particular ideology. The ideology that causes the most referrals is extreme right wing. And by the way I don’t suggest the schools and universities are openly teaching any political point. It is largely implicit. Like how they constantly go on about trans rights, and slavery and other matters. It is never openly political but it is powerful indoctrination nevertheless.

And I would hope that some of them actually engaged in the debate and encouraged you and other pupils to get involved, hence encouraging civil discussion of difficult subjects. These days divergent views are seen as a threat by many.

Well I agree with some of your analysis. Some of the above are just catalists, not causes. I would add to your list human nature (greed, envy, ego, inability to think critically and analytically and plain old selfishness) and 'The Establishment'. Especially the educational establishment, especially universities. Since when is education supposed to be political? And lastly the general unwillingness to engage in discussion and debate (which I think starts at school). By the way I have particular beef with schools as my boy was reported to the anti-terror radicalisation program (Prevent) by his school because his beliefs were not left enough. And our lovely government are going to roll out training for teachers specifically to help them spot non-left views! Of course they say they will train teachers to spot extreme right views, but if you are interested I can tell you what views my boy was reported for. In case you don't know, around 8000 referrals are made to Prevent each year, the majority of them schoolchildren. And the largest type of referral is for far right ideaology. And just to top off my winge about the education system; of those Prevent referrals 83% are deemed not to warrant any actual intervention - which of course sort of confirms that schools are seeing extreme radicalisation even when it doesn't exist. Or to put it another way, they are guilty of viewing everyone who doesn't see the world the way they do as a Nazi.

Ah this is the problem with the written word; you may have had a twinkle in your eye, but we didn’t know!

A little bit of time inside for Mandy perhaps? Passing confidential and valuable government information on to a financier presumably with the intention of enabling insider trading whilst a senior government minister could be seen as rather serious.

If you are referring to satirising the headscarf known as a hijab that is not particular to one race. Therefore calling this racism is quite misguided.

What we really need to know is whether the two Dempseys are related! This could get very confusing...Mick Dempsey and Mike Dempsey! How have I never noticed that before? maybe you don't post on the same threads generally?

I've never tried to prove this, but I assume it was basically a marketing ploy by the original sawmills and timber dealers in America. They could see that their cypresses had great properties and were in some respects similar to the highly valued true cedars so they borrowed the name. Just like there are now many trees whose timber is sold as mahogany. I sell loads of spruce as Welsh Oak - works a treat! Oh no; maybe I just dreamed that...

Yes I have always regarded the timber of the true cedars to be much the same. Certainly the apparent properties of the ones I have milled over the years are identical. Totally different from the fake cedars of course - ie the cypresses (western red cedar, white cedar).

Thank you. It sure as hell can’t be worse!

Well, I have just placed an order for Starlink for my business site. Grand total cost £19 for all the kit (special offer right now I believe) and £35 per month for unlimited data at a max speed of 100MBS. I never own the kit so if I want to switch it off I have to send it back. No minimum contract. Realistically I have not yet heard a bad report on its performance even in this immediate area so I doubt I will send it back. Only trouble I had is that my existing connection is so slow the Starlink website struggled to even load. Got there in the end though. I went for the domestic package even though it is for my work site - the difference seems unimportant to my needs. And apparently when it arrives I just pop it on a roof or a pole and plug it in to the mains and the supplied router. Hopefully then once I have used this for a few months and am happy it is reliable I will transfer my landline number to it with a separate provider which will cost me about £10 per month. Incredible. £45 per month for landline and fast broadband and loads of calls (for an extra £5 per month I could make this unlimited including international). I will report back here how it actually pans out.

I have not suggested Mr Musk or any other entrepreneur is altruistic. What I said is that he has made his billions by providing something people want. If you have a minute look at the vacancies page on the SpaceX website. There are hundreds of current vacancies. He employs about 120,000 people and most are on six figure salaries. My view is that commerce is what ultimately creates wealth. Governments do not. The greatest achievement in history of taking people out of poverty is 800,000 in a quarter of a century. This happened in China this century and it was all down to commerce. Aided and abetted by government of course, but actually brought about by thousands of entrepreneurs. Whether you like Musk’s politics or not he has made a huge contribution to wealth, not just his own. I can’t comment on Grok as I don’t use it. I see a place for AI; though I also see challenges as with all the major developments of the last couple of hundred years. I do agree political divisions are getting deeper. And for some reason most people seem unable to discuss and debate these matters in a civil manner which I think is a loss to everyone. I suspect you and I would not agree what is driving all this though!

Total parasites! Get rid of them!

Yes quite a lot actually. I agree we are all being played to an extent. But also many of us are playing. When someone like Elon Musk creates a company and does very well (let’s remember it will do well only if he provides something many people are willing to pay for) and creates tens of thousands of extremely well paid jobs, is that playing us all?

Well he should have said that! He said “Millionaires and Billionaires”. Many millions of people in the UK are millionaires. And you need to remember that the reason for paying no Inheritance tax is that the assets are in trust and that instead the trust pays other taxes. Namely the trusts pay 6% tax every ten years. Not just on inheritance but potentially several times in an average lifetime. So as usual it is a myth that the country is awash with rich people paying no tax. My landlord is also worth billions and when he died and his son inherited the titles and estates the IHT bill was over £70 million.

What has happened to the Green party? I actually voted green once or twice many years ago. That makes me shudder now. At an event over the weekend Zack Polanski said in a speech that "...multi-millionaires and billionaires. They have taken our power, our wealth, our democracy and we are here to take it back." For some reason he forgot to mention that the top 1% of earners in the Uk pay currently a higher overall tax rate than at any time in history. Or to put it into figures the top 1% of earners pay currently 29% of all UK income tax. So I guess he mis-spoke and what he meant to say is "Thank God we still have quite a few super wealthy people left in the UK as we really would be screwed without them." Unless he really said what he meant in which case he and his party have become extremely dangerous to our cost of living, our public services and at the same time they could reasonably be accused of stirring up division and jealousy. Or have I missed something?

Your tractor has a fridge???

I still use my Rupert the Bear cookbook. Well, I still use one recipe from it, but the book sits there on my shelf still... It doesn't have the marmite recipe in though as far as I can recall...

Marmite cheese still not in our local Tesco sadly.

No indeed, but Trump has changed his tune on Chagos.

One thing he did in Davos apparently is meet with the Americans about Diego Garcia, which may be one reason the Chagos deal is now shelved.

What is the purpose of this?

Don’t forget to account for handling, positioning and storing logs, clean up and dealing with waste. Also remember that a proportion of the boards you cut will be rejects as they will be too bowed or have major knots hence weaknesses. Also as you have alluded to it is easy to totally overlook the part of the business that takes the longest - marketing and sales. If you spend two hours on production but then another four hours actually selling and dealing with the customers the equation is turned on its head.