kevinjohnsonmbe

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??

In part, certainly I’d agree Mr ?. Post war reconstruction, 60/70’s transport, more latterly (if you believe the hype) NHS and cash crop picking / packing. (In real macro terms) Id suggest however there is a distinct difference between how modern labour migration started and where we have ended up today. Post war, it was as simple as having to replace lost workforce. That is certainly not the case today and I’m somewhat baffled by (my perception) traditional Left appearing to support continued unrestricted movement of people apparently in preference to upskilling and employing the +/- 2 million indigenous unproductive. It just doesn’t translate as Labour being the party of the worker if they are willing to let so many sit without work whilst (literally) more hungry people come from elsewhere. It also doesn’t sit right with me that a necessary consequence of unrestricted in-flow of more bodies places greater strain on services and infra structure. Coincidentally, it also doesn’t sit right with me that it has irreversible detrimental effect upon societal cohesion - I know well enough you understand what I mean by that having seen it yourself, and I know some may disagree but I’d say to them take your head out of the sand (being polite since it’s Sunday)

No they don’t, neither ‘side’ seems to like it up’em ? Listening to the Mayor of London referring to honest, decent, hard working, god fearing, pillars of the community as “extreme far right”, like they are some kind of terror organisation just because they oppose or offer a counter view to unrestricted immigration and wholescale social, economic and cultural change within the UK whilst on the AM show illustrates very well how intolerant of ‘the voice of the people’ some sections of the political classes can be. Personally, and as keeps being rolled out as the ‘reason’ for the Brexit vote (not that it was my principle reason, and I’d hestitate to grant much credibility to anyone who thinks they can interpret the reason for other people’s voting tendencies) if we are to believe that immigration was, in fact, the primary reason for the Brexit vote, then that view, by the majority vote, can, by definition, neither be extreme nor Right wing but rather that it is the majority, centre, opinion.

The balloon thing..... Pretty poor form, not very ‘British’ old boy (kind of funny nonetheless!) So, the precedent is now set, let the ‘freedoms’ flow I say. Should be some fun times ahead. I’m just somewhat bewildered that such moral outrage is generated (and no doubt genuinely felt in certain quarters) against the President of the USA rather than directing all that obvious passion and energy into causes (countries) that have so much more to be ‘fixed.’ But, like fox hunting really, there are far greater issues within animal welfare that deserve attention - and would reap much greater benefits - but the majority of the protest effort is directed entirely in a ‘less wrong’ direction than where it is most needed. The common predominant factor in both examples is a sort of ‘class’ protest which undermines both causes (IMHO)

What did it say......???????

It’s the quality of the material that’s available to work with at the moment Ti ? Of course (at least in part) tongue in cheek (not sure that’s appropriate after Vesp’s vid link) and in part overly simplistic, but entirely expected that some indignant outrage would ensue and similarly entirely expected that some members would ‘read between the lines’ and see that, from the sarcasm, comes some absolute sense. The exquisite irony being the mock outrage which emirates from those most likely to claim the absolute right to free speech (so long as it doesn’t poke fun, challenge or reject their predetermined view of the world) - strangely, not entirely dissimilar to Islam....

I’m offended by your assumption of my lack of stupidity..... ?

A - it was a Saturday! B - had it been a work day, it would have been at MY expense not anyone else’s. C - I was hoping you’d fall for the click-bait ?. Can you imagine the scene though? Jack-booted JRM robots marshalling the great unwashed into ‘re-education’ pens.... A sight for sore eyes!! ???

Whilst recognising, and with the greatest of respect for the right to protest, can’t help thinking it’s a shame they didn’t round up all those protestors and survey how many of the anti-establishment, anarchist, hippy, wasters were simultaneously funding their existence off the back of the giro in turn funded by the tax payer - what with it being a workday an that..... Imagine the boost to national productivity (and reduction in social ‘security’ bill) if all those that ‘could’ be working actually were working instead of clogging up the streets having a party. It’s almost as if a solution to so many problems presented itself all in one place, all at the same time! There was the unskilled manual labour that we are ‘supposedly’ reliant upon immigration for... There was the myth that we are reliant upon immigrant labour debunked, there was the solution to exponential population growth placing additional demand upon services and infrastructure.... 10’s of 1000’s of fit and able bodies to be put to work! If only there had been a squad of Boris / JRM / Trump robots with cattle prods shepherding them through a registration and induction process, they could all have been in the fields and factories of this green and pleasant land putting their shoulder to the wheel instead of whining like cry babies....

Mole Valley Farmers & BASC from memory, may be others... MVF member card is an Aryton (I think you have to have had it for a month or so prior to vehicle purchase). Easiest £5k discount you’ll ever see!! (Well, that and VAT reg and AIA!) It’ll put a smile on your face every (s)mile of you driving!!