the village idiot

All the Ash are crippled in the Wood I manage in Suffolk. 200 acres, predominantly Ash. There may be some resistant trees but I haven't spotted any in the last couple of years.

Presumably on the hunt for a Pedigree Chum.

You may be in danger of making my case for me if you go down that route.

Im no psychiatrist but I would guess he suffers from a larger than average ego.

I can quite believe that, but depression and being hateful are different things.

Quite often it's people who hate themselves who are most hatefully vocal, whether they are concious of it or not. Have you ever met a genuinely happy person who talks negatively about others alot? I reckon it's usually a vain attempt to make themselves feel better, but all it really does is make things worse.

I've got mains in the cabin at Idiot Acres so can top up batteries there in between Woodland stays. Got a big genny at the Wood to power the splitters, this can be used as a back up.

Perfect! I'm in East Suffolk Seriously though, many thanks for the thought. Have you got any pictures?

Cor! Darth Vader's old run-around.

Fantastic advice, just what I need. Keep it coming.

Yes, that's the sort of thing. It would be my only vehicle, transit would go. I have a cabin on a piece of land and I would alternate between this and the van. Anyone got something similar?

Panel van conversion, transporter type with pop up roof. Budget up to £25,000. Don't know whether its best to pay more and have resale value or go cheaper.

Cheers Alan. Not looking to build my own even though I have a transit. Would rather get one ready to go. Good shout on the contacts. Geoff seems to have vanished, I'll give Andy a tinkle.

Do any of you guys have much experience of camper vans? The regular van conversion types, transporter etc. I'm looking at getting something to spend some nights in every week at the Wood. The evenings are stunning at the moment. Had a caravan before but don't really want to go down this route again. Not had any experience with camper vans so any advice/tips/cool experiences greatly received. The VW's seem a lot more expensive, is the extra cost justified?

The people I am most in favour of helping are those that are fleeing medieval mindsets. These people are hardly likely to turn into the very people they need to get away from in the first place. I think you are right to talk about mindsets however. You are rightly concerned about people getting blown up in the UK, but individuals don't do this because of the colour of their skin, they do it because of the ideas in their heads. Stopping immigration will not stop terrorism. Increasingly people will become radicalised over the internet. Al Quada has been quietly regrouping in the background and we know they have the capabilities to fly planes into buildings. If we want to stop people killing us because of faith we have to do something about faith. Bad ideas are the problem here. Basing decicisions and actions on faith is not a good way forward and it is very difficult to argue against the validity of one perfect heavenly father when we still cling to one of our own. Christianity is evidently much less troubling than Islam, largely because it is ignoring many of God's commands, but it still promotes the idea that it is reasonable to base ones existence around supposedly divine origin ancient scriptures. I do not believe this is reasonable. I believe it is harmful and the cause of many of our problems. As a side note. You only seem to focus on the deaths inflicted upon us by immigrants. As stated above, this is a devastating issue which needs to be solved by talking about the right things, but the number of deaths attributed to immigrants pales into almost insignificance when you consider the number of British lives that have been saved through the action of immigrants. Immigration and terrorism are very complicated problems. There are no simple solutions, however much you want there to be.

I mean in terms of not allowing people into the country because it might negatively impact on our levels of wealth.

It's definitely a tricky one. Despite what Matelot no doubt thinks I think, I am not in favour of open borders. As you suggest, this would be nuts. I also don't believe however that purely relying on a points system is moral unless a potential immigrant scores points related to the desperation they are in. A traditional points based system won't help the people who most need it. I appreciate that a lot of people don't put helping the desperate as high up their list of immigration priorities as I do and I understand the issues involved with increasing the numbers of unskilled and culturally different individuals in the population, but I just can't get past the fact that we in the West are just lucky and we should not feel entitled to live like relative kings at the expense of others who did not have our luck. Where you draw the line as to who to help and who not to, I have no idea. It is a debate that will never end. I would just be much happier seeing a little more compassion creep into the deliberations, rather than purely focussing on the effect on us. Re. integration, I definitely feel that once granted the right to reside in the UK every effort should be made by the immigrant to fit into the way we do things. If this conflicts with their religious beliefs then I would expect them to make some compromises. One can't have it all.

Do you think that comment merits an answer?

Probably not all that many no, but I do suspect that making sacrifices to help others would provide more personal happiness and wellbeing than having a bit of extra luxury would. If this became widespread knowledge then everyone would be truly better off.

There is a factor you never take into account, the positive effects of immigration on the migrant. I appreciate you're probably not at all interested in this but some of us like the fact that we can offer other human beings a chance of making their lives better. Very few people were lucky enough to be born into a country like the UK where life is a comparative doddle.

Yup, that's pretty much my understanding of the situation. I think that anyone here that claims to know what is going on is almost certainly talking out of their back channel. I suspect the World leaders don't really know what is going on either.

Holy Moly!!! No thank you very much indeed.

I don't think this is a line of reasoning you want to go down Marcus.

Cheer up Mull, friday tomorrow.

If you carry on posting like that people will stop calling you a racist and we might be able to make some ground on this conversation. Still highly suspect, but hugely better IMO.