Youngstu

Ok, I'll try one more "what if scenario" and see if you'll give a straight answer... If a good friend of yours had a son, who for example at the age of 12 made it clear that they wanted to "present" as a girl and be regarded as such by everybody and the family respected this wish, accepted the name change, their choice of clothing etc. Would you be willing to refer to them as she, use their chosen name etc, or would you refuse to do so, sticking to your principles and beliefs and insist on calling them a boy, using their original male given name etc, even though their family asked you to follow the child's wishes?

Or, as Johnsond has expressed how professional and tolerant he is in the workplace, I wondered how he would behave in such a situation in his professional capacity, even though he holds such strong views on the subject in question (that he brought to this thread!). Like it or not, this is something that has to be dealt with at the current time and I'm curious how someone holding such strong views would keep them in check when in the workplace in order that they don't end up coming up against discrimination allegations etc. It's not a subject that I find easy to understand or deal with either, but having seen friends have to deal with children in this situation and being aware of the massive mental health impacts on those young people, I appreciate that it is something that needs to be understood/accepted/tolerated by those around them, one way or another.

So, just out of curiosity, how would you respond if you found that one of the "men" that you'd been working with was born female, or one of the "women" had been born male and had undergone gender reassignment surgery earlier in their life, with the majority , if not all of their documents stating their current gender?

So if there is a child who has "felt they were in the wrong body" and has presented as the opposite sex, and this has been accepted by the family, medical professionals etc, should they just be expected to accept the adolescent changes associated with they gender they were born as even though they may have intentions of undergoing gender reassignment surgery when they are old enough? Such decisions can have massive implications for a young person's mental health, greatly increasing the chances of long term psychiatric difficulties, self harm, suicide etc. Why do you think that this kind of help/treatment should not be available through the NHS?

Thanks for that Stubby. I'll see if the same thing happens to the current one, if it does I'll give it a go on the next. I assume there's no definite way of knowing beforehand whether or not this process has been done wrong or testing the hardness of the different parts of the blade without particular tools/equipment. Thanks again

Over the last year I've milled about 30 tonnes of larch. I've worked through plenty of blades, some have ended up very sappy, some pretty blunt before changing without any other issues, but I've now had three from one pack of blades break on the weld for no apparent reason. When they broke the blade was appropriately lubricated, they were not sappy, or blunt or going through anything unusual, they just snapped without any warning.

Probably 3 16ft larch logs into 2x4 and 2x6 over the last week. It was still cutting well until it snapped.

I'm not really up on metal treatment etc, would I be right in assuming that this would improve a poorly finished weld and do no harm to one that should be ok anyway. Thanks very much for the helpful responses Stubby and Khriss.

Blades bought last September. Three blades have snapped on the welds. Out of 30+ blades I've used over the last few years these are the only ones I've had snap/break. So after today's breakage I thought I'd see whether anyone else on here had experienced similar issues as I thought I remembered seeing someone discussing similar but it may have been on a woodland mills FB page.

Hi. After having my third ripper 37 blade (on Woodlands HM130) snap on the weld I was wondering if anyone else had had similar problems. All three have been from the same pack of blades bought last September. Fortunately none have gone early on, but after quite a bit of cutting, but not at the point I was ready to change blade yet. Tension is set right, everything cutting well and all of a sudden... bang! Thanks

And feels very hard done by, because apparently he wasn't really being mean and if he said some of the nasty things that others say about him, he'd be booted out forever! I don't understand why he'd be treated much more harshly than anyone else!

As with everyone else you're entitled to your opinion with regards to the position anyone else takes on a topic. However I don't personally feel that it is hypocritical to call out an individual who is persistently abusive to other members of the forum (often in a sly, underhand way), and makes repeated disrespectful and often hurtful comments about the family members (in this case suffering with a severe mental illness) of others without any provocation. Other than the fact that I noticed his sly comment directed at another forum member and pointing out how unpleasant and abusive he has been, I'm not really sure how my posts would be comparable. But there we go, all of us see things differently.

If it wasn't for your previous track record on this kind of thing it could be assumed that it was an innocent mistake on your behalf, but in reality that seems highly unlikely and it's merely another example of you treating others with a complete lack of respect or empathy. I think it would be reasonable to say that a fair proportion of forum members dabbled in drugs and alcohol to a greater or lesser degree in their misspent youth (and some may continue to do do). The use of legal and illegal recreational drugs is widespread through all parts of our society, across the ages and socioeconomic groups and partaking in those activities doesn't mean someone is a "junkie". If people who did so were lucky, they've probably got away without any long term effects such as physical or psychiatric conditions that can be induced by drug or alcohol use (not necessarily excessive use either in some unfortunate cases). If someone is fortunate enough to have grown up in a loving and stable home, without experiencing significant trauma, and without a family history of mental health conditions (often the root cause of the trauma experienced by children), then they may be one of the lucky ones who has been able to enjoy a drink, or a smoke, or whatever else without having that urge or need to over-indulge to a dangerous level, or reach the point of becoming dependent on that substance. Or that fortunate person may not have the "need" to use substances to help deal with that trauma as a method of "blocking out" the things that cause them distress. It doesn't mean that they are a better person for it, maybe they just haven't experienced the same things as the person next door who has struggled with addiction through the whole of their adult life. What has led to you being so judgmental of others who may have had very different life experiences to your own?

Definitely a good plan with making that decision regarding the troll. I don't really see why he hasn't received a permanent ban for his persistent abuse directed towards other members of the forum. It would certainly be a much nicer place without the abuse and belittling comments that come from his direction. Undoubtedly he can make constructive contributions in several areas of the forum, but can't help himself from showing his true colours on a regular basis. Despite mental health awareness being greatly improved in recent years and their being a greater degree of acceptance and reduced stigmatisation of those who have mental health conditions, there are still plenty around who see no issue with throwing insults at those who are suffering with things that they don't have any understanding of. Through one aspect of my work I've come across several people in a similar situation to your nephew and it is heartbreaking for all of those around them to have them succumb to such a serious lifelong condition. Unfortunately due to the prevalence of home produced high strength cannabis strains, compared to what was in regular use 20+ years ago, this problem seems to be increasing greatly, as these highly psychoactive strains are being accessed by users from a young age when they are potentially most vulnerable to the negative effects. Despite having it pointed out to him previously by several, he seems unwilling to see that issues around excessive drug and alcohol use are far more complicated than people just being pissheads or junkies.

So you were making a deliberately vicious comment directed towards another member of the forum and their family then, without any real provocation! Just as I thought.

Ah yes, sorry I forgot that you'd including a winky faced emoji that showed everyone that you weren't really being a ....

So you manage to make some reasonably acceptable points with only a few digs about the people in society that you don't like, well done! Then you feel the need to finish off with a final, completely unwarranted barbed comment, directed towards another forum member and their family. What the hell is wrong with you?

Depending on where you live and whether your family likes to be able to walk your dogs off the lead where other dogs are walked it would seem to be bordering on irresponsible not to have your male dog neutered unless you're intending to breed from him. I have friends who have had to divide off their houses as they've insisted on keeping both the male and female siblings un-neutered as they might want to breed them sometime. It's obviously much worse if the bitch is in season but the male can be a pain at other times too. Other dog owners with young female dogs that haven't been spayed also have to deal with your big randy male dog and his urges. We have a female cocker and before she was spayed on the beach had to lift her up out of the way of much bigger out of control male dogs who were somewhat persistent with their desires! Depending on your house and garden situation you could also end up with an escape artist if there's a whiff of a bitch in season in the neighbourhood!

In Australia I was told it means "West of Gaza" and is (or was 20 years ago!) widely used to refer to people who originated from the Mediterranean, including Italians, former Yugoslavia, Turkey etc. Not necessarily used or taken as an insult, although not always easy to to be 100% sure with the Aussies!

Lovely. Nice to see that Colonialism is still alive and kicking. They should think themselves bloody lucky that the glorious British went over there and helped themselves to their resources, after all they helped build some lovely roads, railways and good old colonial style buildings. Then they had the bloody cheek to want their own land back after the Brits had rolled their sleeves up and done all that hard work!

So sorry Andy, I must be completely misinterpreting what you're saying. Now I see that when you're challenging someone to "say that to my face" (or similar) it isn't really meant to come across as threatening, or intimidating, or as I previously thought challenging them to a fight if they say the same thing in person to your face. From this statement I clearly see that all you're really saying is that you'd like to have a longer discussion about the topic in person as you really feel that the points could be better conveyed by both parties in a verbal discussion in person, as opposed to on a forum such as this. When you've asked them to suggest a time and place (or words to similar effect), you're at that point extremely passionate about arranging the meet up for a longer discussion. Sorry again for misinterpreting your words and making defamatory statements about your intentions without any real evidence that could be submitted in a court of law!😜

It does seem pretty consistent that you get involved in a row about something (often start the row as well if we're honest about it!), get increasingly wound up/insulting to the other person, then if you're still not winning, offer to meet them outside/down South/ wherever for a fight if they're happy to "say the same things to your face".

Seems a bit like this in here sometimes!

It was at the time that pension age was increased, maybe aligned with private sector, not really sure but the point is that the conditions of employment, benefits etc were changed for those already employed and changed significantly for those who were within sight of retirement who all of a sudden were no longer in that position and had another 5-8 years added onto their working life in that career (not to mention changes to how pensions were calculated) Definitely in the minority but more about his views and opinions which are very much of a traditional type as opposed to modern and progressive, embracing many of the things of the world that we currently live in. Why are teacher's working conditions and challenging unjustified changes to them classed as political just because the politicians make the decisions? It's not necessarily about fighting the politicians because of what colour their ties are, bt about fighting what they're being asked to do. So when other work places have to socially distance to help prevent widespread infection schools and teachers are magically immuned to this issue? It may not be unusual to do so but presumably the contracts in place and remuneration in those jobs make it an acceptable thing to ask and do. When you say that overtime is included in the salary, does that mean you just have to do it whatever or you're paid for overtime you may or may not have to do? You have made quite a big deal about how much you are paid for the job that you do (for the not many days a year you do it), presumably the levels of pay being received make this kind of expectation acceptable to employees, unions etc. Considering how well your daughters have done in the current education system their heel dragging teachers can't have done that bad of a job up until now. Unfortunately that last statement shows the kind of attitude from parents that is one of the contributing factors that leads to increased levels of stress for teachers, which leads to increased absence, kids being taught by cover supervisors/supply teachers and ultimately the loss of experienced teachers from the profession. Maybe rather than taking those negative articles as the basis of your opinions of teachers you could try and see that the vast majority are doing the best that they can in the circumstances that they find themselves in. It's not perfect but for many, if not most pupils it's ok... all things considered.

I really don't think that I am trying to downplay the role of the unions. Yes some of them are definitely up for a scrap with the tories at any given opportunity but they really don't have the influence that they used to. As I said previously they had little to no effect on preventing the incoming academies etc rewriting contracts, conditions of service, pay gradings etc. As such many teachers pay them little heed. I don't think my house is unusual in seeing any union correspondence heading directly from the letterbox to the recycling box. But as they still receive their dues they clearly have to be seen to be doing something. When there have been union imposed strikes in schools it's certainly not been the case of teachers following their union directives, either for financial reasons or because they don't want their students to miss out on their education. However I would have thought that it's absolutely right that they are fighting for the teachers to maintain their working conditions as they signed up to them. Back when there was a big reform maybe 10 years ago they changed the retirement age and having taught for about 8 years my wife all of a sudden had the same number of years until her retirement age as she'd had when she'd started. I hadn't hear of Chris McGovern, but having looked him up and his Campaign for Real Education. There are some aspects that I can agree with like greatly increasing the value of teachers in our society, which would potentially draw in more highly qualified graduates, but much of what he says and campaigns for wouldn't look out of place in the Daily Mail. Why did the mature and in particular male teachers choose to leave? Blair was definitely not loved by most left leaning teachers (being seen as a red Tory), although in the Labour years teacher pay went from awful to quite good, but Gove's tenure as education minister sent many more of them packing due to pay, conditions and his decisions regarding changes to the curriculum away from that advised by experts to what worked well for him. It certainly sounds like the unions provide you with fantastic protection for your job, pay, conditions etc! You may be right that those working in the public sector are often in a better position in a number of ways but surely that's no reason for them not to receive a similar degree of protection from those at the top making decisions (especially when those decisions are often political rather than in the best interest of the customer/staff/end user or in this case children). It's far from ideal I'll agree for our children to be in the situation that they are now, but the children of the key workers and those considered to be vulnerable (and a lot can fit into that category) are in school (along with a lot of teachers). There are tens of thousands of teachers spending huge amounts of time doing everything they can to provide the children who are at home with as good an education as they can in the most difficult of circumstances, desperate to get back to face to face teaching. I think claiming that they are using children as human shields is very misleading, if anybody is being used in that way it would be the vulnerable staff members or the vulnerable parents/grandparents of the children. They are the reasons that the schools are closed, they are the ones being protected from Covid, not the children at school.