kevinjohnsonmbe

There’s still plenty of waste & ineptitude within departments that can be hatchetted out to fund this from within existing departmental budgets

Ummmm, Soubry... She’ll never speak another word that I will ever believe.

And a "bonus" when you go to collect your gear....!

Meh... There's too much to choose from... Katie Hopkins, JRM etc etc.... All quality TV political satire ?

I'll "see" your Alex Jones and "Raise" you a TR! That Alex Jones piece.... Made me think of me at a Parish council meeting.... ?

Anyway, what about all those idle yoofs of today....? Nobody seems to want to do an honest days graft anymore.... Disgraceful it is!

Me too! Think it may have back fired though....

I “was” going to do some graft today, but Mrs J “made” me take her for breakfast after the school run. Hardly worth starting anything after that

That’s rich! What are you doing at the moment??

Last ever “Daily Politics” show......? What am I gonna do lunchtimes now?

You know you’re in trouble when.... You know you can like someone’s post before you’ve even looked at the link ?

Just seen an ad on BBC for a prog due to start Sunday I think. “Travels in Trumpland” with Ed Balls. The trailer looke ACE! Can’t wait, it’ll be a hoot!!

I think Major Exercise might get exited and start jumping around a bit - just as well he's LE PTI!!

Classic farmer with a chainsaw scenario - right down to the wellies and crappy Stijl! See if all the time hereabouts No consideration of TM No consideration of FL No consideration of reduction rather than felling No consideration retaining standing stem No consideration of replanting (I didn’t pay enough attention to recall if it was ROI or NI but that’s a technicality). Custodians of the countryside - yeah, OK. Mention earlier of consequential costs v cost of getting it done properly a very valid point. Especially as costs + VAT could have gone through the books as deductible. Entirely avoidable “accident” which rightfully sits in the “stupid” file. So who should pay for NHS treatment in a brave new world? Saturday night piss heads? Lard asses? Smokers? Speeders? Junkies? The terminally stupid? Or should these costs carry on falling to the tax payer???

You ARE laughing you Northern monkey! Of course you are, that’s why you said you’re not! (I didn’t say, for fear of ridicule) that it was reversing into my own yard - a manoeuvre I’ve done a squillian times (with and without trailer) without incident but on this one occasion, with a momentary lapse of concentration - boom, 3 grand down the toilet! Chuckle away my Stokey friend, sh*t happens.... ?

I bumped the rear ¼ of the Hilux a while back, off side bumper and rear panel folded up like a tin can. It was only a very slow impact reversing into a drive and touched the wall. Repairs just shy £3k! Had I still had the 110 it would have bounced off but that's progress! 20kg rock in the side of a 17 plate Merc 4x4.... That'll be eye-watering! Agree above ☝︎insurance pay out to affected 3rd parties then consider recovery options.

I don't do PC stuff to feel important.... I AM important (in my own little world of me, the Mrs, the nipper and the dogs!) PC sh*t is massively frustrating trivia which requires more tolerance of idiots than I ought to be able to muster. It's a curse on many levels but it's no good being an arm chair quarterback if you never leave the armchair. Even if it's only possible to make a very small difference, at least it's making a difference... If you think we've fallen out over a few comments in the past, it pales into insignificance in relation to the 'friends' I've made on the PC ? There are (more times than not) that I genuinely wonder why I bother.... I think it just comes down to stubbornness on my part now - and the knowledge I have that my being there p*sses off some of the others.... (bit like here really)

Finding no way to argue against either point Mr ?

EU expansion Eastwards and the subsequent destabilising effect upon Russia / RoW relations was the primary factor in my casting my vote to leave the EU (and hopefully speed it on its path to ultimate demise)

Fair play to you boys.....! That is a truly head banging moment! I wonder if, in time, it will enter into the urban dictionary as a valid defence for other, more general day-to-day legal defences? Do you take this woman.... It's my round..... I'll send the cheque this Friday... Yes officer, I did stab him..... I'll clear all that brash..... ?

At the PC precept setting meeting last November (my first) I was astounded to find that there was no knowledge or pre-scrutinised estimates for the 18/19FY budgets (they didn't know what they were required, or may have aspirations to spend.) There was +/- £130k unallocated cash at bank and the (previously) routine process of setting the precept for the following year was a bit of a chat and a 2% increase (since "everything else is going up" and "we always have an increase" - genuine actual quotes.) I literally forced them to add additional columns to the spreadsheet there and then, to review the preceding years expenditure and to allocate some elements of the cash at bank to future liabilities. I kid you not, it was budget management week 1 day 1 for kindergarten! The upshot was, after running the figures, that a negative budget was delivered - ie a precept decrease/rebate. This caused a total f*cking meltdown... The Clerk then undertook to "reassess" the figures and "make" it a neutral budget - ie same as last year. I took that as a major victory in a long war. That Clerk is now "retired" after 20 odd years in the job, apparently, my "awkward' questions made him "uncomfortable." The biggest problem in all of this is not the idiots in charge (at what ever level) it is the apathy (no offence to yourself, I'm starting to wish I hadn't bothered!) of people that DON"T get involved and let this outrage continue unchallenged! PS 30% increase in PC precept??? That sounds like something is desperately amiss there!

I've been pondering it too but I didn't feel qualified to try and define what the Labour Party of today actually stands for. Perhaps it is an impossible ask but I like your take on it. I can answer the question about why I waste my time with the PC though. Some of the Cllr's do considerable and admirable work in the community, some, I'm not quite sure what they do or why they do it. For myself, I hate wastefulness and squander of tax payers money so my personal cause celeb within the parish is expose the ineptitude, inefficiency and incompetence of PC decisions as relates to scandalous waste of tax payers money - that's my 'service' to the tax payer and it's a thankless, uphill struggle against the inequities of long established cronyism within the PC and deep rooted public mistrust (with due cause) of Local Authority. If anyone is interested, I created a Facebook page (to the immense displeasure of the PC) which can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/StCleer/?ref=bookmarks For a relatively small village / parish it currently has 161 "likes" and 171 "follows" which far outstrips the "official" PC facebook page and that of the Ward Councillor. It's made me no friends within the PC though, within the past couple of months there have been attempted harassment charges brought to D&C Police (dismissed out of hand), Code of Conduct Complaint to the LA (partially upheld but a shallow victory since I consider it to be meaningless), an attempt at an aggressive take over of the Facebook page by the PC (you can imagine my reaction to that), an article in the parish rag due this week and threats of legal action from the PC's solicitor. It's ruffling a few feathers and making some people very uncomfortable - that is my measure of success and the harder they try to suppress the more I'll bring into the public domain. If the cretinous incompetence of some of the decisions made at this local level are multiplied by the number of PCs in the land, then multiplied again by LA town, district, unitary areas, then multiplied again at the party political level, electoral wards and national government level, and then multiplied again by international organisations such as the EU, NATO, UN, etc... The amount of money being pissed up the wall would be truly, eye-wateringly, unbelievably staggering. That's why I do my bit and for as long as I'm getting the clicks and support via the FB page I'll continue. Hope all well up there Mr ?and you're on the mend after the Heath.... ?

I thought I was frugal, but that's too much effort even for me ?

The losses incurred through chainsaw rather than bandsaw must far outweigh any notional losses through shrinkage I’d have thought? I cut with chainsaw and end up with masses of sawdust - that’s all lost firewood. Im guessing (on a larger scale) the productivity v lost volume v bi product disposal v cost of machinery etc etc would be considerations if firewood is a significant part (or all) of the main business effort. Where does the break even point sit for the expense of firewood processing machinery as opposed to hand cutting? I’m guessing there are elements of time / convenience to consider also. I’ve often looked at the band and table saws and can’t quite justify the expense as it stands. That said, I’m only cutting for home use, be different if I was selling.

What is tradition Labour then? Tony Benn? Arthur Scargil? Tolpuddle Martyrs? Tony Blair? Momentum? there seem to be so many variants of what Labour thinks it is, and what people think it should be.... What is your definition of traditional Labour ? and is it available today??