kevinjohnsonmbe

I was thinking 7:5 (what with the wood reference) but didn’t think it quite right

Would that be the “I think the population of London is SO stoopid as to not recognise a blatant political stunt” box Ti? i get the point, maybe log burners aren’t the best idea in densely populated areas, but talk about starting at the insignificant bottom end of the scale....

Mmmmm.... ban on wood burning whilst expanding Heathrow.... Seriously....

Good spot re FL, what was I thinking??

Hey Philip, if they've just bought the house, the solicitor that undertook the conveyancing / searches should have highlighted any applicable covenants or restrictions. That should be the first place they should seek advice (at least that's what I'd do.) If none are shown, and no TPO/CA restrictions apply, consider the need for Felling Licence (if volumes require) It's an interesting question about covenants on deeds. I've just done 4x TPO reductions in an area where all the neighbours have a max 30' tree height restriction on their deeds but 1 neighbour had their trees TPO'd - seemingly in defiance of the covenant. The question from all the other neighbours was - how come he could do that and what can we do about it. My reply, not much really, take a civil action if you've got more money than sense. Be interested t see what types of replies you get...

OK, I’ll admit it, no shame in recognising when you’re wrong! Listening to the Comrade Leader’s closing speech, I now recognise that I too have something to gain (so long as I’m willing to join the massed ranks of those that demand something “out” regardless that they put little or nothing “in.”) Since there’ll be (free) life-long education and vocational training for all, I’d just as well go blow the training budget on yoghurt and hemp weaved flip-flops! Bonus!

McDonnel’s mentalist Marxism, Momentum in full control, Corbyn blissfully bumbling towards a Venezuelan economy, all topped off with idealist ‘students’ that are so thick as to not realise they’ll be the ones paying for all the empty promises and an XL side order of racist anti-semetism. Its beyond comedy! “Planning for the economy to crash” What a billboard campaign add that’ll make.... with a big gooning, baboon like “Abbot’s head” for visual overload

That’s understandable, the lesser of 2 weevils an that.... There’s not much to enthuse the “middle ground” stuck between the super rich of the Tory elite and the (similarly) super rich of the Socialist elite.

You can't tell me off after you 'd the post! Mr Eggs, I believe, is an exception that disproves the rule.

Just highlighting the illogical basis of your apparent "Tory scum" opinion if, as appears to be the case, you're justifying it by using the PFI example.

Busy? Or....

Introduced it, undeniably. But who do you the think it was that took it to the extreme? "...The even uglier reality for Miliband is that the New Labour era was a golden age for the PFI. The modern PFI is the child of John Major’s Conservative government, but it was adopted and thrived under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Between 1997 and 2008, 90 per cent of all hospital construction funding was under PFI agreements, which paid for 75 per cent of all hospitals built..." https://www.newstatesman.com/staggers/2014/07/save-nhs-labour-must-face-ugly-truth-pfi

A man of few words....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/25/cage-director-refused-hand-mobile-pin-number-heathrow-convicted/ This is an interesting one [emoji121]️ I’m not sure I’d willingly hand over my phone / laptop access codes either. But then I don’t have any dodgy Qatari contact details on it nor do I tend to unilaterally attract the attention of the forces of law and order. Either way, Rabbani must be as thick as mince going through LHR with ‘sensitive’ files [emoji23]

Listened to his conference speech and his later interview on LBC. I thought he made Dianne Abbot sound capable! Nationalisation - Seemed like he was making it up as he went along and any question that was too hard, like how are you going to pay the shareholders or on PFIs (predominantly introduced under Blair / Brown coincidentally!) how are you going to ever attract any future investors if they can’t trust you, or his apparent outrage at the level of household debt - whilst planning to borrow to fund his ludicrous give-away schemes... A complete and utter head-the-ball.

Ah! Seen!! Comedy...!!

Confused.... What sort of language....? The suggestion of a breathalyser or that other offensive drivel?? To follow Ti's lead, on a lighter note, making the news today:

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying I disagree with you. I disagree that expressing legitimate concern over uncontrolled immigration and the overt islamification of Europe should be labelled as racist by those that can't see it for what it is and, because they don't see it, they seek to demonise those that do with distasteful labels. The German election is underway today (https://ig.ft.com/germany-poll-tracker/?&segmentId=9ce01cde-b50a-e27b-c45a-1af2175e42ce&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr53OBRCDARIsAL0vKrPCiFbOHiDCZ7VVB1Cdl-kbAeld63t6x9H8XeL8gY9-pWCc30nr_WoaAl3QEALw_wcB) Despite having made what will probably be viewed as the single biggest miscalculation by any Western political leader in this century, Merkel will, almost inevitably be returned for a fourth term. Maybe that proves that the majority of Germans are not concerned about the immigration issue? Conversely, maybe Merkel's reversal of her atrocious open doors policy and the significant stiffening of immigration regulations in Germany demonstrates that she has (although falling well short of publicly acknowledging and apologising for it) decided that her political survival is more important than her political ideology? Maybe the weight of influence of the AfD (in a similar way that UKIP's influence led to Cameron delivering the Brexit referendum) has brought a dose of reality to Merkel which has caused her to veer away from her previous path. I agree with the statement (in a peculiar sense) that "...whoever wins the vote in Germany has nothing to do with the rise in the racist community in the UK..." But I'd ask, what do you base the presumption of a rise in the racist community in the UK on? What happens in the UK has a fairly limited ability to effect domestic politics in Germany (Brexit aside) I expect there will be racists within the AfD (similarly in the UK, the anti-Semitic members of the Labour party, the fruit cakes of UKIP and the old landed gentry of the Tory party.... Racists all of 'em. Dam, they're everywhere!) But expressing views on immigration is not (of itself) a qualifying criteria for that club. My counter point to your declaration that "...you people and your way of thinking will never come to power as thankfully you are in the minority..." is that there are clear, obvious and measurable contradictions to your assumption which can been seen and drawn from consideration of the bigger picture issues associated with a raft of recent political events such as the rise in popular support for the National Front in France, AfD in Germany, UKIP in the UK, Trump in the US, the Freedom Party of Austria etc. With the exception of Trump, the others didn't break through the glass ceiling to become fully established as 'in power' political parties. What they did do however, was deliver significant political effect by giving the mainstream parties a 'loud & clear' message that people - the masses - were becoming increasingly intolerant of their policies which resulted in notable deviations from preferred courses. In that respect, I disagree with you that "...you people and your way of thinking will never come to power as thankfully you are in the minority..." because, although not in what might be the traditional sense of "power" i.e. the majority ruling party, it is perfectly clear that the "power" to directly influence the mainstream is already well established. The digging a hole thing - well, that was my attempt at a humorous reflection on what I'd interpreted as a switch from the half-baked, failed attempt to bandy around the racist label, to your similarly half baked and poorly thought through religious argument. Where are we going next? Vivisection? Legalisation of drugs? The ethics of combining human and animal DNA?

The article declares itself wholly invalid and irrelevant (in all respects other than maintaining the Bremoantard momentum) in the 3rd paragraph: "... However, the figures do not take into account new staff arriving from the EU..." How difficult would it be to present the net figures? Why wouldn't the author take a moment to do that and present a true picture??

That's not what I meant.... All I meant was, given the unprecedented popular rise in support for AfD (could read, Le Pen, Trump, Brexit etc...) your statement seems tenuous at best... The best cake! You can't be wrong because it's your opinion. I can, and do, disagree though. The popular support for AfD in Germany is very closely associated (almost exclusively) with an anti - immigration protest vote - how does that have anything to do with UK? I'd suggest it kind of mirrors the UK protest vote which was reflected in the UK EU referendum.

? Ummmmm... Not sure where to go with that without being characteristically direct....

Much as I'm loathe to break up you love birds.... I think you're right to question this. But, I'd enter into the debate with, I'm not sure country or culture is the causal influence on systemic corruption... I'd propose that it might actually be an effect of poverty - those with little (or nothing) have a different perspective on "right and wrong" where the outcome of a so-called moral decision might be the difference between life and death - often the key element of the decision making process in the 3rd world. I genuinely think anyone would struggle to condemn a thief for stealing bread to feed their child. If we can take that as a starting point, that would be a start. Where it falls over however, is (a) where a country has either organic or imported 'wealth' ('aid') and the ruling classes retain it at the expense of the population - why would they do that? or (b) having achieved a level of national wealth, it isn't distributed effectively by the ruling classes so the majority remain in poverty - probably because of the inherent, systemic corruption and greed that is ingrained from generation to generation... The ruling classes are doing OK (but they've gone from generation to generation experiencing the different type of morality before they got to the stage of being OK.) The general population are still in the moral dilemma of life and death decisions trying to get to the 'we're doing alright' situation.....' If you don't think the cultural norm in Africa, Asia, S America is corruption, nepotism and self interest then, frankly, (a) you're delusional (b) you've never been there! "...Please don't think that more and more people are thinking the way you do they don't..." Howabout we wait until tomorrow and review the AfD polling then come back and review that?