16 minutes ago, Steven P said:

 

Wouldn't that be just 'school' then with different teachers.....

 

However point to note, get them all home schooled, take control to teach them what you want and with the values you want - there is no minimum criteria of what to teach, no minimum standards so long as they are getting 'an education'*... and once a week get them all together in a church hall or something to socialise and do group work

 

 

* If you think it would be in their interests 'an education' could be business management such as learning how to do a small business admin side of things (yours....), practical skills such as mechanical skills (saw maintenance...), add in some English (or Welsh) and maths exams, and some practical skills (ground work, tree climbing...).. it is an education

In principle I totally agree.  What they teach at school is such a small aspect of what could be taught.  And yes of course parents could work together to educate kids.  As long as kids get good English and good numeracy they could then study a million things that will never lead to a GCSE.  Of course if they do ever want to do a degree they will need to work towards that at some point.  Of course A levels are not the only thing that count towards Uni.  My youngest got his first batch of UCAS points when he was eleven due to his guitar playing.  Mind you I doubt I will encourage my youngest to go to Uni.  Apprenticeship yes, Uni maybe not.

1 hour ago, AHPP said:

I meant home school his friends too. 

Ah right I see.  Mmmmm Not sure I could cope with my own boy all day, never mind his mates as well...  Actually it might not be so bad, they would egg each other on.

21 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Home school them too.

Well as I say he has a great circle of friends at his current school.  And do I think he (and my wife and I) have the commitment and motivation to make a success of home schooling?  Maybe not right now.

I have a lot of scepticsm about schools, but I think that they can be very good.  Just a shame that so much nonsense idealogy has been sucked in by stupid teachers and other senior leaders.

On 12/02/2026 at 17:22, Mark J said:

I knew very little about Zarah Sultana.  I now feel I am a bit better informed. 

Calling one of the most successful entrepeneurs to come out of the UK this century currently employing 25,000+ people a parasite says a lot about her.  Presumably all people who work hard and do well are parasites.  And perhaps those people who get a job in the public sector and then expect endless increments (regardless of performance) or even worse those people who decide it is a mug's game working for a living are the salt of the earth?

Or maybe the bitterness she displays towards Ratcliffe is because he is (along with thousands of other wealthy people) the living proof that if you tax wealthy people hard enough they will go.  Which is a phenonenom that has been know about for a very long time and yet still some people pretend it doesn't happen.

10 hours ago, Mesterh said:

I would be pulling my kids out of that school TBH.

Yes, the oldest one is now home-schooled.  Youngest one we would like out, but he has a great circle of friends there.  So for now we are keeping a very close eye on things.

1 hour ago, nepia said:

What nailed Ratcliffe's words as acceptable to me but red rag to the salivating media was the fact that it was our glorious leader up first for demanding an apology.  For expressing a personal opinion.  How very dare he when he's plainly WRONG don't you know 😁

Plus he wanted to distract from all his other woes, and from the rest of what Ratcliffe said which was not exactly a ringing endorsement of government policy.

6 hours ago, Steven P said:

 

So I will take that as a 'No, your kids weren't taught anything about Bananas in Nutella at School as the video mentions, in fact given they are still in the school, they have received nothing but a normal education"

 

In fact I would propose that all the members here with kids in school, those kids are receiving a 'normal' education and the video posted above as I thought is BS.

I have not watched the video referred to above but I can confirm my boys’ school does go on about some very weird stuff and pretend it is normal.  Certainly their school is in the grip of some very extreme ideology.  Never underestimate how nutty teachers can be.

On 10/02/2026 at 19:01, Fellstoflats said:

Does anyone have any experience of the 1988 version of the Japa 700?

I used to use a Jappa 700 but it might have been a bit newer than that.  Let’s see what it looks like and I can tell you if it is similar.

14 hours ago, Whoppa Choppa said:

Been asked to supply logs for milling into boat props. They asked me if treated Spruce would suffice instead of Oak or Redwood but I'm sceptical.

 

I've assumed dry dock obviously, quayside..

 

Any ideas?

 

Got plenty of mac and pine in stock.

If I were in your shoes I would try and find out more about their need.  Ie size of each prop, how long they are expected to last, will they be in use in all weathers for years, or just for a season and then all dumped, etc, etc, etc.

Will these go at the bottom of a dry dock and have many thousands of tons of ship on them and be expected to last for decades?  Or on the other hand just be randomly used to haul small pleasure craft out at a little boat club and a couple of years life is more than enough.

By the way, when they say redwood, you do appreciate they probably mean pine?  Actual redwood would only be used as boat chocks if they specifically had to be really soft.

5 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

Grey old day but dry and warmish, this picture is Tan Hill Inn today, the highest pub in Great Britain.

Is that what you call warm?!?

1 hour ago, WirralBoy said:

Snooker legend Virgo dies aged 79

What a character; such a great commentator, building the suspense; sometimes when nothing is even happening.  
 

And who could forget his snooker player impersonations?

2 hours ago, sime42 said:

The largest type of referrals is for individuals judged to have no identified ideology, not RW.

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.  

33 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

When I was in secondary school in the late 70s we used to bait left wing teachers (of which there were many) with ‘right’ wing opinions.

We didn’t do it in a concious way, it was just a way of winding them up.

The more professional teachers, who never opened their mouths about politics were accorded more respect.

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.

On 28/01/2026 at 23:05, sime42 said:

Go on then, what do you suggest is driving political division? I'd say the media, traditional and social. Wealth inequality. Smart phones. The Internet. Folk conflating opinion with fact. Narcissistic politicians. Tech Bros. Random people on forums always seeking to stoke division rather than cultivate common ground. And the new kid on the block, AI. In no particular order.

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.

10 hours ago, Tilio-acerion said:

Sarcasm 🙃 

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

12 hours ago, Whoppa Choppa said:

He's just quit eh 

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.

3 hours ago, Tilio-acerion said:

“Fcuk off with your racist jibes.”

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.

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

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?

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

It’s just what the Americans named them when they encountered new trees isn’t it?

A bit like how they called vultures ‘buzzards’

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...

1 hour ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Would Deodar nor serve your purpose as well?
Lots more of that about.

Just curious.

 

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).

48 minutes ago, Rich Rule said:

Hope it works out and you get better coverage.

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.

On 27/01/2026 at 19:39, sime42 said:

It’s naïve to consider him to be even slightly altruistic. He does very well, at the expense of everyone else.

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!

23 minutes ago, Oldfeller said:

Grosvenor estate is considered one of the highest taxpayers in the UK through income tax, corporate tax, and other levies, despite avoiding inheritance tax

Total parasites!  Get rid of them!

12 minutes ago, sime42 said:

 

So the Prosperity Institute.

Controlled by four directors, only one of whom resides in the UK. Predominantly funded by a Dubai-based investment company that also funds GB News. (There seem to be questions around the owner of the investment group's links to Russia.) The balance of donations to the institute facing some controversy over funding transparency. 

 

This all seems like exactly the shadowy influence and dirty money that Mr Booby is trying to tackle. The "large group of pieces  who are not always visible in the game but are able to manipulate both the main players and the pawns, and even change the board entirely to a completely different game, but usually with the same goal." That you were referring to in this post:-

 

 

Us common people are all in the same boat, we're all on the same side. We're being played by the mega rich and powerful. As you say. 

 

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

 

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?