wrsni

What age are you?

Firstly a disclaimer: I see myself as British as anyone living on the big one of the British Isles, no republican sympathies here I can assure you. However, Thatcher ironically probably done more harm to the UK than McGuiness could ever have dreamed of. Falklands war, Miners strikes, Printshop workers dispute, Steel workers strikes, Anglo-Irish Agreement, never mind the decimation and privatisation of large chunks of British industry which we are still paying for today. Anyone who looks up to her as a beacon of Britishness is either a fool or a knave!

No not at all. There had to be a process of communication between the provos and the British government to enable things to get anywhere. Because it was such a long drawn out process which developed gradually over the years it's difficult to pinpoint who had the greatest role. My beef with Thatcher is that while she was talking tough publicly, especially after the Brighton bombing, she was still keeping those channels open with the provos behind the scenes. As for the evolution of that process, never ever underestimate the role of Gerry Adams in the history of Northern Ireland over the past 40yrs or so. He's been pulling the strings of republicanism for at least that period of time, probably longer. There was violence because he orchestrated it, there was ultimately peace as he decided it had become the best option, and if he decides there should be widespread violence again then he'll have no trouble getting enough people onboard to make it happen. Think modern day "Godfather" and you really won't be that far away!

Back a year or two ago when "Question Time" was still just about worth watching, there was some feministy type on it coming out with the usual aul diatribe about how everything would be that much more agreeable and less acrimonious if women were in positions of power. Dimbleby just stared straight ahead and said, "like when Margaret Thatcher was in charge?" Said panelist never uttered another word on the subject, such was the comprehensive nature of the put-down! Thatcher was a truly vile woman, and of-course the real sting in the tail about the Brighton bombing was that for all her bravado in public at the conference, what she actually DID do was hasten the process of appeasement with the provos as a result of it.

Aye deed!

Thanks Marcus, but I've a mig, stick, and oxy/acetylene all sitting here so that would just multiply the embarrassment! Usual self-employed dilemma I'm afraid, paying stuff has to come first, your own stuff then has to fit in around it. And on top of that, this winter has went in serious quick don't you think? (not that that's a bad thing mind!).

Back in November I bought a euro headstock off a guy who I got in touch with via the farming forum but in the midst of all the dalein', I managed to negotiate a stonking price on three sets of euro brackets as well. Somewhat embarrassingly however, I haven't actually got any of it fitted yet!

Good job Marcus. Tidy yoke.

Not a cat in hells' chance. I wish the UK government would call the shinners bluff on this and give them the referendum which they claim to want as it would bury the issue properly for the foreseeable future. As for the EU referendum, NI was 55/45, roughly the same as the Scottish independence result, which we are continually told was not a clear victory. Add in the fact that the majority who voted to "remain" only voted on an anti-UK basis (as opposed to pro-EU), Sinn Fein themselves have been strongly anti-EU for most of their history and only changed their stance when they seen it as an opportunity to "brit bash", and the situation there is nowhere near as cut and dried either. My own electoral constituency had one of the highest "leave" percentages in the UK, but then us Ulster-Scots always have been that wee bit more astute!

Two trains of thought on "Direct Rule" Marcus. Firstly, if they don't get the institutions back up again within the stipulated three week window, we could be in for a very long period of direct rule as once it's established there is much less incentive for any of the children (politicians!) to stop being naughty and actually play constructively (govern!). Some observers think that this automatically renders it a non-starter, I wouldn't be so sure, especially if the UK government are prepared to still pay the buggers. There is another train of thought that both sides could sit back and happily hand over the reigns for a while and allow the UK to bring in a raft of legislation that neither side can agree on, same-sex marriage, liberalisation of abortion, Irish language act, welfare cuts, and a new budget. This would then allow both sets of wasters, sorry, "political parties" to take the moral high ground and waltz back in to office in a whiles time with their heads held high(???????) once someone else has sorted out the mess which they've both created over the past number of years. But who knows really! Such a shame for what should be a terrific wee country.

Election outcome - more of the same surely?

But ironically ended up voting for it! Not really sure how to see that.

If he actually did say that it's scarily prophetic!

Aye, I'm starting to think that way. I've plenty of young crab apple trees as well, might experiment a wee bit with one or two of them first, see how it goes. But leave the pears for now! Thanks.

That indeed is the issue chief, but with reference to the other post as well, that doesn't bother me as they'll need to go up and even they fruit higher up we'll still get to it OK. But would you still thin, take off lower shoots, try to be a bit selective, or just leave them till it entirely? I have no concerns whatsoever about appearance or such like, just what's best for the health of the tree and I suppose ultimately what makes it most productive. That's more what I'm getting at.

I know the basics of fruit tree pruning but has anyone any thoughts on how to approach it in a woodland setting?. Some of the pear trees especially have pretty much every branch pointing skywards which I suppose they are going to do when they haven't unlimited area around them to spread out to. So would you treat it more as a thinning exercise rather than training out and down? Also hybrid berries. I have all three currants, black, red, and white, also tayberries but I'm always looking out for something else to try that could be of use. Have seen both Boysenberries and Japanese Wineberries mentioned in various books but does anyone have experience of any of these and what they're like to look after, or other suggestions? Bear in mind these will also be going in to a woodland setting and will be expected to thrive with minimum maintenance. All suggestions on both welcomed and appreciated as always.

September was lovely, even October was OK, ........................explain that then???????

With due respect to yourself. As it turns out there is absolutely no issue with "Sir Mo" returning to the states. Yet social (state?) media is still crammed full of headlines suggesting that there is, even running the emotive "daddy can't see you again" headline with reference to his children! I'm sorry but using such language to blatantly tug at otherwise well-meaning peoples heart strings when the whole thing is a fallacy is disgusting. I don't know who or what is behind this and the constant barrage of anti-Trump sentiment which actually seems to be getting cranked up rather than subduing, but to me it's much more inherently evil and dangerous than anything President Trump has done or is proposing to do

I've a facebook business page (nothing to do with arboriculture) which I probably could get considerably more out of if I made the effort to use it a bit more. I just struggle a bit with the whole "look at me" thing, but this year I'm just going to make a wee bit more effort and even just stick on the odd photo of something I've been working at or whatever. I don't do any advertising, all work comes by word of mouth, so for me it's just enough to keep the name out there. Can't really agree with the statement regarding demographic of facebook user, most of my customers probably would be 40, 50, 60 age group, practically all of them are regular facebook users. Mrs uses it regular to keep in touch with friends and family even though most of them are only 10 or 15 mins drive away, even her mother who's in her late seventies!

Surely not!

There's your problem, conflict of authority! DEFRA is central government, council is local government. It's not unusual for one to have no idea what the other is doing. Check that your woodburning kit doesn't invalidate the DEFRA approval. If it doesn't, ring them and tell them (nicely but factually) that they're wrong. If it does, tread carefully!

You made it easy!

What a load of utter garbage!

Now you see that's something that really does get me going. Feminists shouting about descrimination and how badly they're treated in the western world. Or some actress/female celebrity/ personality shouting about inequality when they get paid more in a year for doing precious darned little than many ordinary hard working men or women will earn in a lifetime. How about they head off to Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, or Southern Asia where women are treated deplorably on a regular basis and actually try to do some good.

Well I supposed that at least prevented G4S from loosing them on the way to the court house!