kevinjohnsonmbe

I'm not so sure, I was fortunate enough to have a long chat with Bernard Ingham some years ago. It was an insight to what happened behind the scenes. What the country saw on TV was the 'delivery' face once the Lady had made a decision. The country never saw the 'deciding' face that was always private. I don't want to see prevarication and 'humming and ha-hing' from a leader, I want to see decisive, clear and achievable objectives.

She had a vision, conviction, a direction and moral courage. Today we seem to have media obsessed, vote chasing, reactionary politics, without foresight or strategic planning and delivered by career politicians. :thumbdown:

There will be elements of the former industrial communities that will always hate and blame Thatcher for the consequence of the entirely necessary whole scale reform of state subsidised industry. Hindsight's a wonderful thing but so can be blinkered, tunnel vision. Crippling Union intransigence, massive inefficiency, unsustainable and unaffordable state subsidy would have driven the country to its knees anyway. She took the surgeons knife and cut out the cancer. What (it could be argued) she didn't fully appreciate was the long term social, emotional, psychological impact upon the communities that were affected. A legacy of blame and hate that will likely last several more generations. Communities where many generations are without employment, poor housing, crime, drugs and alcohol dependency. Hopelessness. Or was she an inspirational leader? Did she actually preside over a set of decisions/actions that caused pain for some but saved the country from whole scale collapse? I don't expect a former miner, steel or car worker or shipbuilder to ever get over the pain they suffered personally and within their community, but to look back on the WHOLE of the circumstances which brought us to that situation and consider the alternatives (objectively), I'd suggest it wasn't a perfect solution but a necessary one. The flaw was the lack of adequate mitigation for the social impact but looking back at the passion / violence I can't see what would have ameliorated the resistance to change?

Milliband doesn't need the greens to make him look like an idiot...... :laugh1:

[quote=SteveA; Best not to pigeonhole. Can't argue with that, but it certainly is fun!

:thumbup1: Well intentioned but ultimately the impossible dream of comfortable middle class hippies and career anarchists. The very policies that would be required to truly create a 'sustainable' existence of humankind on this planet would be so abhorrent to the hemp sandalled, horse hair jumpered, bearded, yoghurt eater as to make their dreadlocks curl! Peace &

Well that cheered me up (excluding the health issues), if I thought I had time pressures, they are nothing compared to yours with 3x little ones! 😳

Where are you based? I'm in Cornwall so it's likely the travel would be a real PITA for me! I have funds on standby, but time is ridiculously precious, 3yo daughter, busy at work blah, blah, blah etc, etc, etc! The knowledge on this forum is incredible, just makes me want to learn more!

Hell! Starting to quieten down down there now?? Had a job back in summer at Prideaux house, ended up with wrong MEWP so we're in the pub by lunchtime. Met some madass fishermen and got on the lash! I wanted to leave the van and get train back but mate got all sensible!

Nice!

Where are you based Stu??

Errrr...... Blushing..... Massively impressed but somewhat baffled by the science! For Chris, is this L6 level knowledge?? Spoke to Gary (btgaz) over the Christmas break, giving some serious thought to getting signed up.

Careful! I got a censure for swearing!!! 😬😬😬

Norfolk & branch??

Makes sense

It mills up lovely!

Sharp spot!

This is slightly tangential but does anyone have a view on this: AA Field Guide Fungi on Trees page 12, Impact/Effect/Significance paragraph "...The fungus can spread from colonised stumps and roots to surrounding trees, particularly if there is a lack of natural suppression, in the form of fallen deadwood, colonised by other (beneficial) decay fungi performing natural control..." Would it be a fair/sound assumption that installing stacked deadwood in the vicinity of Honey fungus infected trees might encourage beneficial control fungi which might have a suppressing effect or might it just provide further growth medium for the Honey fungus???

because anyone that has used them before will never go back?

Looking back Richard, I shouldn't have said 'poor advice' really! Any advice offered is useful, it's how to interpret and implement it that makes the difference and that's down to the person seeking it. We're all just throwing ideas in the air, OP has to catch the ones he likes 👍👍

2 spuds mate? Work must be slow or you'd need more carb! Hope all is ok?

Buying a car is, only in my opinion, particularly poor advice. It portrays an amateurish rather than a professional image, a commercial vehicle portrays a more professional image, may (although I'm not sure for new drivers) be cheaper to insure and is, most importantly, offset able as capital expenditure.

David, here's a couple of links that will give you a really good head start on forming up your ideas / plans: https://www.gov.uk/starting-up-a-business/start-with-an-idea Santander offer these, but a google search will offer similar from most high street banks: Starting a Business - Business Start Up - Santander Business Guides Starting a Business - Business Start Up - Tree Surgeon - Introduction - Santander There's a fair bit of reading there but all of the salient points are covered - there's no need to reinvent the wheel if someone has already done the work before! Single piece of advice I'd offer as the most important is don't borrow unless you absolutely have to, you'll have to pay it back before you see any money in your pocket!

Could just as easily be Cornwall!

Straying a little bit off topic, as ever, but whilst there are experienced opinions engaging the subject, could I seek a view on the nature of a 'purely factual and unbiased' report and what, where, who decides that the arb report should be this way? This is a general question rather than directly relating to the circumstances the OP has raised. There's no confusion over the factual recording and required detail / content of the various reports as described in 5837, but so far as I can see, there is no 'limit' to that which might be included so that could include opinion or options? (I have in mind the H&S officer that walks around the site telling everyone what they can't do but not offering any advice or guidance on a safer / better option as a comparison) Not very helpful.... Since the author of a report has presumably been engaged to provide (a) a record of that which exists on that day and may influence design and (b) wether through offline discussions with the design team, engagement with the LA and the developer / customer, a set of options that might inform and assist the ultimate aim of the development, is it considered 'correct' simply to record the data and pass it back to the customer, or is it considered better to suggest solutions? Probably a bit too broad a question to result in a simple yes / no answer - I guess it'll depend what you've been asked / paid to do......?