kevinjohnsonmbe

s118 HWA makes allowance for relocation or extinguishing a PRoW. It’s not rocking horse science and it could be significantly less work / money / admin than the proposed clear fell. Its an option that could be viable and perhaps should be presented to the landowner - it’s just a case of flippin the telescope and looking at the problem differently.

I’ve never had any liking for her particular brand of ‘humour.’ With luck, and as a show of proportionality with recent examples, I won’t have to suffer seeing her on HIGNFY in the future...

Whilst the great minds pontificate and ruminate, and the glacial inertia of the bureaucratic cogs grind towards a committee output (?) there is one thought which jumps out from your description of the situation which might not have been considered. Move the PRoW Of course this doesn’t solve the Ash management issue but it could take away / significantly reduce the elements of ‘risk’ which appear to be being presented as the primary justification. The previous talk of getting an arb survey might have been better considered as getting a risk survey? Interested in your thoughts David: @Acer ventura

Done. Only question - what was your rationale for classifying firewood as high and low grade? Accepting that certain types of wood command a higher price, would we be better trying to inculcate a change in attitude such that all wood is recognised as a usable resource rather than perpetuating the accepted norm? Or is that just optimistic?

Mheh! I’m undeniably jealous.... Nothing growing of any note here - still feels like Winter ?

Oh no, I’m afraid of the answer before I even ask the question.... Is that badger protection or badger culling.... Depending on the answer, it could be the end of a beautiful friendship before it’s even had a chance to blossom...

Ah, I should have linked to Khrissssss' post for that to make any sense! Bats - We've got 2! As I discovered after an eco mate found fresh poo upstairs in the barn. So far they're likely to have cost about £250 each since the planning app for the barn conversion required a bat survey - which found the 2 after several hours of watching and listening (with audio gadgets) and 2 weeks of remote audio sensors in the barn. Now need another emergent (sunset) survey to absolutely pin down where they are emerging from after the initial indications of the first survey. It was quite cathartic to sit quietly for about 2 hours from 30 mins before sunset focussing on 1 particular area of roof. Can't remember the last time I sat quietly for 2 hours and just listened to the world....

Good old Sunday night bale wrap burn.... custodian's of the countryside ?

Been here a fortnight - 3 weeks. Seems a lot busier than last year.

...and avoid any future large diameter stem cuts

You present a compelling argument Mark....

Some interesting pieces there Pete.... Certainly 1 I'll keep an eye on!

He's a bloke (albeit objectionable to many - and I can't help but wonder if that is a product of their own bias and prejudice) who took the only steps he felt were open to him as a white, working class man with no effective political representation within the existing system to express and highlight the personal concerns that he felt were dominating his life. Yes he may have been part of a collective which is viewed as football hooliganism, but that was his 'tribe.' There was no other tribe speaking for him or available to him - in his view. There are 100,000's across the nation in that tribe and that led to the establishment and growth of the EDL with the common sense of purpose derived from football. Within that tribe there are elements of hooliganism, crime, drugs and hard racism - what a laugh, I could just as easily be describing any of the current political parties! I'd challenge anyone that has (a) read his book and (b) listened to his Oxford Union address to present a case for despising him based upon anything other than their own bias and prejudice - and that is where the greatest irony and hypocrisy will be exposed. The anger directed towards him should rightly fall at the feet of the politicians that allowed the circumstances to arise where 100,000's of dissatisfied citizens turned their backs on mainstream politics and subscribed to EDL in the absence of any viable alternative. Not at all mucker, they both present very credible opinions and they have both been the subject of systemic and societal persecution for expressing those views. It only 'appears' that I have more affinity for TR rather than MN because TR gets (IMHO an unjustified) bashing by certain elements because of who he is rather than what he says. If there were threads or posts hating MN that would immediately be classified as racist because of his ethnic origin rather than what he had said. I'd be just as keen to highlight the need to open the ears and close the eyes whilst listening to his message as I seem to be for TR. We've had this discussion before, TR is immediately perceived as being horrible little tnuc, but that is very easily used to mask the validity and necessity of what he actually says. His very existence, the rapid and widespread national establishment of the EDL and his continued exposure of apparent systemic societal imbalance is a PRODUCT of political failure.

?

Why would you assume I’m ‘taken in?’ He is what he is, might we say “a product of the system” as the system influenced him.... Please don’t assume that I am taken in, a fan, a follower or a supporter of his personal doctrine. I am no more, or less, a fan of him than I am of Majid Nawaz - I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with both in fairly equal measure. The one thing they definitely both have in common is that they hold, and freely express, what might be considered as controversial, but well considered and articulated opinions. And THAT is what those brave souls charged up the beech to preserve - it’s not for the likes of us to decide who gets to express an opinion.

I don’t agree Mull... Unless, somehow, since he is white, working class means he’s not entitled to an opinion.... We’ll have to agree to disagree (again ?) mucker.

Does this sound familiar: "...What are the woman in questions circumstances Marcus..?" It's all about the context Mull as I think you were trying to suggest earlier. What would you say were the chances that the 10 second video clip posted above presents a full and comprehensive narrative of the situational context which led to the flashpoint? Right enough he might be a hooligan but how much abuse does a hooligan have to take before they are rightly justified in dishing out a slap to some oike who can't or won't take a hint and do one...

I’m interested in Exeter dates David. Just trying to clear diary.

So yome in the firing line as well then! Once ‘they’ve’ ‘liberated’ all the super yachts, ‘they’ll’ be coming for YOU!

That’s exactly the trouble though. How does it get fixed unless EVERYONE has exactly the same? Id quite like the Jag’s that Prescott had (wouldn’t really, but for artistic licence), the Brazilian holidays of Crow etc, etc. Everyone is a Lord of the Manor iffum yome living under a bridge...

I think I can be pretty sure that you look beyond the current so called 'populist' opinions to form your own views, I know I do. I suspect however that the majority of those who 'claim' to, whilst simultaneously accusing others of not doing so if the view presented is contrary to their own, probably, actually, don't... Why did it interest me enough to share it... In part because it takes a reflective look back at previous political decisions / policies and how they may have contributed to current day societal status. It is only by looking back and seeing what / why things were done that opinions / conclusions can really be informed. In part because I have probably been unconsciously influenced by the notion that work hard = personal reward, maybe without even knowing that it could have been a system of societal control (if you believe the opinions presented in the piece.) In part because I am vehemently opposed to the waste, ineptitude, incompetence, inertia and lack of accountability / responsibility which seems to permeate so many levels of local, national and international government institutions - all tax funded of course. In part because I have to pay tax. In part because I'll never be super rich nor super poor so I'm one of the 'millions in the middle' that feels (IMHO) justifiably outraged by tax revenue taken from my hard earned being pissed up the wall (in what ever form that may take.) I posted it - I didn't present any comment (yet) From the closing paragraph - which I'm supposing was meant to be some form of loose 'conclusion' which I thought the article fairly failed to provide (other than the sweeping statement in the opening passage - "...The economic arguments adopted by Britain and the US in the 1980s led to vastly increased inequality – and gave the false impression that this outcome was not only inevitable, but good...") Much of the inequality we see today in richer countries is more down to decisions made by governments than to irreversible market forces. These decisions can be changed. However, we have to want to control inequality: we must make inequality reduction a central aim of government policy and wider society. The most entrenched, self-deluding and self-perpetuating justifications for inequality are about morality, not economy. The great economist John Kenneth Galbraith nicely summarised the problem: “One of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy … is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." I do think there are some totally crazy and unjustifiable deltas between super rich and super poor (and the relative influence each group might have wrt shaping future policies) but I genuinely struggle with the 'bit in the middle' or is that just me struggling with the moral justification for selfishness? It's difficult being in the middle - there are those that would think I'm a peasant and probably 100,000x more that would think I'm well off.... Tonight I'll ponder my shitty place in the universe over a salmon wellington and an ice cold old vine Chenin Blanc whilst someone sleeps in a cardboard box and someone else sleeps aboard a £4billion yacht. Meh.... dichotomy - my working hand against a backdrop of granite worktop - didn't give us any answers to that in the article did they. No surprise, probably only been read by soft handed, office working, champagne socialists in Islington anyway...

Just heard on the news. No surprise really. Feel a bit sorry for the muppets that put up the £300k crowdfund to bring the suit. A fool and his money are easily parted....

A fairly chunky commentary on tax, society, economics and inequality from the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2019/jun/06/socialism-for-the-rich-the-evils-of-bad-economics?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Facebook&fbclid=IwAR18TDnxKlbTBtJlo_Q0nFxrpeweFx3Ps08NgjsjwpOcJhyBAX6Ilc_lAD8 It's a fair long piece rather than a quick glimpse...

Customer’s own tree? im just guessing but must be North of a grand. Saw some dog rough chainsaw sleeper chairs at open air market on SouthBank - they were 4 figures and not at all special. Big country house / hotel customer - maybe 2.5k. Farmer / private house 1k? Mad really how prices can vary according to circumstances but it seems to be the way of things. Give us a clue....

That’s what I was thinking....