Lucan

Just a certain existing member's alter ego wanting to stir up trouble and waste people's time. The name 'mark 2' maybe should of given the fact it's someone's second account away earlier.

In the early stages of a build, as with Difflock (having ample free wood just a few hundred meters away), have not gone down the wood fuel route, instead looking at a GSHP + PV for UFH and a MVHR (plus Swedish style stove for atmosphere). A few reasons we're not going with a log boiler, a main one being just can't be bothered with the hassle and commitment tbh.

Fiskars X27 for me, rule of thumb is if that Wranglestar guy doesn't like them you know they must be good.

For me the main issue is more who the next PM will be. JRM and Michael Gove have set out almost completely different visions for UK agriculture/forestry/environment. Then there's JC and who knows what his rural policies for a post Brexit UK will be. The EU might not of been perfect but the long term and relatively consistent policies gave businesses certainty to build their business and invest around. Managing the increasing uncertainty and risk associated with more short lived and varying rural policies is by no means impossible, but might catch a few of the bigger companies out.

Got the missus a get better soon card. She isn’t sick, I just think she can get better.

Has anyone had any experience with or know of any hybrid wood and electric cookers? Having a stove that can be electric (gas not possible) during the week and wood on the weekends would be perfect for our lifestyle but so far only found one that offers that, and it's pricey and can't find any reviews; ESSE 990 Hybrid Wood & electric range cooker Cheers

Might be of interest to some Choice of 45 native hardwood saplings plus 1.2m hardwood stakes and tubex shelters for £66. Woodland Trust - Targeting tree disease pack

The reason is because of one of the most important principals of energy policy, that governments shouldn't pick winners. There are numerous examples (of which many from the UK) of costly failed policy caused by governments promoting one tech over another. Instead governments should be tech neutral with their support, and let the market and technologies decide which is best. So you could maybe argue instead that all new builds need a certain kW of renewable technology per square foot, but not a specific tech.

"The sale of traditional house coal will be phased out under proposals set out in the government’s draft clean air strategy in May, which are expected to be confirmed by Gove’s department on Friday. Restrictions are also expected to be placed on the sale of wet wood, particularly in urban areas." Most-polluting wood burner fuels due to get the chop

Merely find it ironic that those that go on about fake news are the same ones that flood social media and forums with fake stories and reports that's all (benign or not). Will curb the use of facts on here in the future as we can't be having randoms on the internet saying I don't have a social life can we?

Fact Check: Horse Shelter

Maybe the best way to deter thieves is not to post on a public forum how you keep all your expensive kit in your van outside your house overnight, when anyone can find your name, company and home address without much difficulty.

I would say so. Commercial forest plots like this are all very competitively priced, no bargains to be had unfortunately. In a previous life I spent 5 days measuring timber in a similar sized forest for a client. The client lost out as the winning bid from the competitor we estimated to be a return on investment of only 1% profit. As I said it's attractive if your looking for a tax-free place to put your cash but not it's not the right business model if your taking out a bank loan. Buy yourself half a castle for the price of a one bed flat in London and Airbnb it for £500/night https://search.savills.com/property-detail/gbabrsabs160093

If it is the forest I think it is then I would say probably not. The initial 250 acres of lodgepole (lot of windblown) is low value chipwood and probably high harvesting costs (wet, and long forwarding paths). Then you have the significant haulage distance to the nearest mill, probable extra investment in roads and costs of replanting all that area. When you factor all that in I would be very surprised if the lodgepole it didn't end up costing you. So you may well not be repay any of the loan for 10 years until the spruce is large enough, and even then spruce in that region tends not to produce top quality logs. If you have £800,000 in your pocket you don't want the tax man getting his hands on maybe, but not sure about the loan idea. Having said that only seen a few photos so might well be wrong.

Would of thought Corbyn's Build it Britain campaign would of attracted more attention. Misguided economic nationalism/protectionism straight from Trumpian economics, or an answer to the selling out of UK manufacturing seen under free market fundamentalism?

Meh, thought you would of gone with this piece of top quality political satire.

Rewatch the highlights;

Does the seller mean 7m3 of solid timber or the volume the trailer can hold? Hard to tell from just one side on photo but even at 14ft lengths doesn't look like 7m3 of solid timber there.

I hope May is going to get those Labour Brexiteers a bottle of something nice. Kept her in a job and avoided another general election.

That might be the case then but they are less keen over his tariffs; https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-americans-divided-over-tariffs-pardons-russia-probe/ Regarding tax cuts for the super wealthy, America has this unique phenomenon in which so many working class citizens support tax cuts for the richest 1%. The reason used to be that they thought it was due to a belief in trickle down economics, however recently it was found that it was for another reason. It was found that so many Americans approve of tax cuts for the richest 1% because they strongly believe that that will be them one day and want to make sure they have low taxes for when they make their millions. They believe they truly deserve to be millionaires and they've just been unlucky so far.

This is true, however certain political systems are more flawed in this sense (reliant on population growth, consumption, etc) than others. The current UK/US system is arguably the most dependent on continuous consumption and population growth. I don't know of any UK political party forward thinking enough to be advocating the decoupling of economic prosperity and environmental impact?

I am against supply side economics because I do not agree that producers are the most important element of economic growth, I believe that the consumer and their demand for goods and services far more sets the pace of economic growth in 21st C markets. Supply side economics even goes so far to suggest demand side is relatively unimportant as supply creates its own demand. As for Regan's tax cuts, they "worked" as he brought them down from 70% to 30%, this (as your laffer curve shows) is a very different kettle of fish than bringing them down from 30% to 18%. The economic success of Bush's tax cuts was more from the low interest rate at that time than the tax cuts. As for Trump's tax cuts "working" we'll have to disagree. I think our difference is over our definitions of "working". GDP growth should not be the only proxy for success of an economic policy. I believe that income distribution/equality should play a far larger role. From 1980-2010 GDP in America grew by 75%, however at the same time most working and middle class workers incomes' decreased. I would argue against that being an example of a economic policy "working". Reganomics or "trickle down economics" has been widely dismissed, however we still use it due to the lobbying power of our super wealthy (for whom I admit is has indeed "worked"). In the 30yrs after WW2, the UK had a form of capitalism that saw rapid growth occur whilst being "relatively" equally amongst the working, middle and elite. We (Thatcher) then swapped that for an American free market fundamentalism and our income inequality between the 1% and the rest of us skyrocketed, and our wages stagnated. I am a capitalist, I just believe in a different form of capitalism than trickle down economics and neo-liberalism. We have been shown that we can have a different form capitalism that sees economic growth for all those who work. I don't think it's too much we ask that from our government.

I think the 18% you are referring to are studies done on corporate tax. On occasions when the Laffer Curve has been revisited, recent results for UK and similar economies are closer to what they are now and even show that labour and capital income taxes could be increased; How Far Are We From The Slippery Slope? The Laffer Curve Revisited Tax avoidance and fiscal li mits  : Laffer curves in an economy with informal sector The Laffer Curve has pretty much been consigned to the scrap heap, it's just a pity that the other supply side economic theories from those dark ages of macroeconomics have not yet joined it.

The issue is there's no real industry body that can lobby politicians on behalf of UK firewood producers. I did post on here a few years ago asking why and the response was it would just be another money making scheme that cuts into my profits. As domestic wood burning gets more and more attention from policy makers and the media, not having a voice or anyone to fight the industry's corner could have disadvantages.

The Guardian article mentioned a £400 deposit scheme for old wood burners in Begern (however a quick google couldn't find any further info or analysis of the impact?). If it was successful I certainly would support a similar scheme for the worst affected areas in the UK, with maybe an interest free green loan for those households living under the poverty line. It might not be the most cost efficient from a neoclassical point of view, but certainly more efficient from most social and environmental economic point of view. Not sure where the BBC got the info that most of the wet wood burnt comes from garage forecourts? Not arguing that, just curious to the source. I would maybe also argue that a lot is burnt by those who frequent gumtree/ebay looking for cheap wood but then too impatient to let it season properly. But that's more based on personal observations (ie those houses in my local village which every time you pass you always see plumes of white smoke from the chimneys are all owned by the weekend salvagers/B&Q chainsaws lot).