AHPP

They well may. Their lookout. Why would stuff be more expensive?

I’ve got an even better one. Stop taxing people like battery hens and they’ll see themselves through. People on average have half their wealth taken in tax (a simplistic appraisal but run with it). If someone had worked for twenty years without being taxed, they could ride out a storm for another twenty years on the saved tax money alone. As it is at the moment, the government’s got about ten minutes of money in reserve because it spent the “bit of money” its collected over the years on bollocks.

The 20% when sold is what I described when the banks repossess and sell. Unless I've missed some other subtlety?

On top of donnk's sadly accurate explanation of the farce of fiat, the Persimmon shitboxes are performing a second nefarious function. The government help-to-buy scheme lends prospective buyers 5% of the cost of the house so they only have to find 5% themselves to make a 10% deposit. Now you'd think a party contributing 5% of the cost of the house would get 5% of the equity in it. Not here. The government puts in 5% of the cost but gets 20% of the equity. If people default on their mortgages, the houses will be repossessed and sold and the government will make a tidy profit. Everybody knows there's a house price crash coming. The government positioning themselves like this (and with taxvictims' money remember) is no mistake. One might even be suspicious of some large newsworthy event that puts a lot of people into financial difficulty; the sort of financial difficulty that might make it hard to pay your mortgage...

QED

I get my news from Facebook memes and the snapshot of this thread on the new posts list (I rarely venture in). I used to read the news like it mattered but gave up about four years ago. Freed up endless room in my mind. People obligingly bicker about details and adopting the Australian model for this and the Dutch model for that and none of it matters. They’re mainly slaves debating what kind of chains are best. Does government still exist? Right, well let me know when that changes. Until then I’ve got some hammerite to go on.

Leave this bollocks on facebook.

I've got a couple of those Ikea knives. They're excellent and I think were only a tenner or so.

I always smile when people talk about bio oil and say it’s so eco you can drink it. Right o. You first.

How much per litre when you buy in those twenty litre cans out of interest?

That's a quality shed so consider filling it with a quality product. Sawn timber should be dried slower than firewood and the lesser airflow inside might be better matched to it. You could extract more value from arb arisings (or waste, acquired stock etc, depending on what your accountant tells you) than you currently are too. What does end up as logs can go outside. Rain does very little harm compared to the benefits of airflow and sun.

Most jars (Dolmio, Lloyd Grossman etc) are horribly sweet and just generally artificial. I also concur that Patak's jar sauces are marginally less bad but they're still pointless. Doing it from paste/scratch takes little extra effort and is far cheaper and better. Patak's paste was my old curry method but I've learnt how to do it from scratch now and it's far cheaper. I'll post next time I make one.

Is there really absolutely no point in painting? Not even 10%?

Main question is will the white be a red rag or a red flag to an MOT man?

No welding needed. Wasn’t even going to drag out the grinder with a wire wheel. Just rage with a hand brush for twenty minutes and call it good. Happy to faff if it’s rewarded. It’s a cracking van.

I’m sprucing up my new van. Not a full time tree truck. Daily driver, light camper, occasionally throw some saws in. The chassis and suspension is in good order and I want to keep it that way. Current plan is wire brush, hammerite and then waxoyl. Now where I think I’m being clever is by using white hammerite and black waxoyl so I’ll be able to periodically inspect and see patches of white where the waxoyl’s worn off and brown on white where I’ve got some rust. Am I instead setting myself up for hell at the MOT by making every ounce of inevitable rust visible? Am I better off doing it all black?

I'd encourage him very strongly not to. People are scared and doing things they wouldn't ordinarily do at the moment. Suggest he sleeps on it for a few weeks at the very least.

A similar two part trick is cream and drinking chocolate.

I do likewise but on purpose. A similarly simple and superb snack is pour some seeds into a mug and stir honey in. It’s basically baclava without the tedium of preparation and cooking. It doesn’t have to be seeds of course. I have a box of miscellaneous carbohydratestuffs. Any of that will do.

My mum used to make excellent flapjacks. Ginger syrup is the secret weapon.

Often. Have several ideas for books. The most likely one is principally an excuse for a motorcycle tour but it’s a good idea nevertheless.

Wok Oil/lard/whatever Onion Salt Whatever meat - couple of cut up sausages in this one Prep your veg while it fries Greens (very roughly chopped the mange tout or it’s messy to eat) Garlic and chilli Quick turn but don’t let the garlic fry too much. Just sweat it to wake it up. Whatever carbohydrate, pre cooked Spices - I usually go with cumin, coriander and turmeric but held back on the turmeric this time because all my crockery is yellow Shake of nutmeg makes everything better Two mugs of water Turn the lot and let the water move all the spices about. Add more water if you want it soupier or serve when the water’s pretty much gone if you want it drier. Five minutes bubbling will do that. Chopsticks for the majority but take a deep spoon for the straggling bits and the soup dregs.

I’m not bad at cooking. I don’t do anything very complicated but I can make something out of nothing pretty reliably. I’ve noticed a few other forum members over the years seem to have some good ideas too. Post them here. I’ll start us off. From the plate up: Warmed plate Fried bread (toast for the infirm and elderly) Avocado, chilli, garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil mashed up Black pudding Fried eggs Salt while the eggs are frying and black pepper once you’ve split the yolks Bon appétit.

Size looks good but are Freelanders as bad as most Land Rovers? He's not a mechanic.

Yeah. That sort of thing. What's the road tax?