Steven P

Trying to work out how you would bend a bar lengthways then. Into the wood and not going straight down but a very gentle curve maybe? With the lever probably applying enough pressure to bend the bar? maybe? Left to right bend of right to left would suggest the direction of the curve but my head is hurting trying to work out which way it is bending

Yes, that is going to be a problem in about 15 years - the UK population is predicted to fall, and of course the fall will start from the bottom upwards leading to an aging population (same too with most of Europe). The solutions are not popular though, increase the retirement age to return our retirement length to about 5 to 10 years, pay more into the system in taxes, import young workers (who can work and pay taxes), or cut services and maintenance of the country (like roads and so on)

which direction is the bend? top to bottom or lengthwise?

I might add.... it is a long time since I had a school meal - the systems have changed since then

Yup, if they got an increase in budget to cover the meals then all is good. My thoughts on this is that you know 63 get free school meals, probably could identify which ones too, don't think we should be able to do this. At secondary school the 'free' meals got tokens, we paid in cash and knew who was 'poor' - I think this is an added pressure to kids that can be avoided by keeping payment or not discrete from the children. If the catering staff are there and paid for regardless, the kitchen is there and paid for anyway, then the cost of a meal is just the cost of the food? So the paid for meals can be 'at cost' - and all can get a school meal (parents pay, school pays, state pays, however)? Economies of scale should make a school lunch cheaper than you can make at home.

£52,000 on drugs!! So that's got your attention... but it is the system we have, free at the point of use, the premise of the national health service, as a society we club together to help each other out in their times of need. If £1k a month in drugs - free at the point of use - is too much then where do you stop? Very soon you'll be suggesting that the NHS becomes a pay-to-go service. If you can afford it you get treated, if not, well, you can just die.

Never convinced that keeping it by the fire is a good thing by the way, OK once in the fire it is more efficient but you still loose that heat energy evaporating the water in the log that is next to the fire.... and all that water vapour makes the house damp or goes up the chimney anyway. Yes, been so wet that the logs are re-abosorbing the moisture, usually it is just surface moisture now, dries up with 2 clear days and some wind.. but yes, they are more wet this year

I knew a policeman who used to get his snacks from the pharmacist on his beat - he reckoned that the shop emptied in about a minute when he walked in! Up here we get them for free, always feels like I am stealing when they just give me stuff (hay fever tablets, paracetamol, and so on)

Was that the one Pam Ayres was on? She sounds all sweet and innocent,...

I can't understand why governments can't own a company out right, but why they can't own that company as a profitable company. Lets say they bought all of National Grid, it makes a profit, keep the regulators with the same power... and the profits... straight back to the treasury instead of to some rich American insurance company. Could do the same and set up a wind farm company, profits back to the us, or perhaps set up a solar panel manufacturer, make no profit but we can buy them cheap for our homes (and with that, deliver their net zero carbon stuff) I don't understand why they can't use our taxes as investments and make more money

... absolute power corrupts absolutely.... Totalitarian regimes, left, right, centre, with not opposition have never come out right. However when I rule the world it will be different

Immigration.. when it comes to that... The UK population is an aging population, more people than ever retiring and living longer, the burden on the 'natives' to care for them will increase. The UK population (the 'natives') is also a declining population, few people born than die, in a few years fewer and fewer young people supporting more and more old people. The pensions model that did work needs readjusting else pensioners will get nothing worthwhile... and so we need immigrants to feed into the work and tax system to keep the pension system alive.. anyway, point of this is that it is all an integrated system, change one part radically and another will be greatly affected too. Going back to a recurring theme of mine, the houses that they are building now, the ones that makes the builders lots of profit, are not the ones that are needed, but they are the one needed by the powerful band of voters..... My gran doesn't want to live in a 5 bedroom executive home and an acre of grass to cut, but is tied up in one cause there is nothing to move into. My children want to buy a property but can't afford a new build executive home, and what there are prices increase till they can't afford anything. Both ends of the scale need something smaller, with transport links, local shops, community facilities, perhaps a church but as far as I see none of that is being built and the market stagnates. To move you have to offer more than the other guys, prices rise.

There are loads of ways to readdress the housing market, but nearly all of them will get the politicians sacked at the next election, and this is the over riding consideration with all national projects... will it be good in the next 4 years to a general election, not the next 25 to 30. (limit mortgage borrowing (to 6x salary)(demand will say "We want to buy your house, but this is the top price"), extend mortgage terms, offer tax breaks for first homes, make starter homes more future proof - don't need to move to a bigger home at 2 children, tax green field developments more and use that to subsidies the new owners (not developers) of smaller homes, solar panels on every house (make living there cheaper), 2 storey flats instead in 4 storey blocks, more busses to reduce need for a parking spot with every home, tax profits on any sale within 5 years of purchase to deter empty investment properties, set up more tax efficient saving schemes for house deposits... however I can't see any of these ideas being popular with the typical Conservative voter or the same voter who Labour are wanting to tempt)

If the government took house sales out of all of their financial reporting calculations I am sure the economy would paint a very different picture... not so rosy at all, there is no incentive centrally to encourage prices to fall. We buy a house - nice load of tax House builders make a nice profit - another nice lump of tax House prices rise - government massage figures to make it a good thing House prices rise, we think it is great since our pension pots increase.... for the homeowners

The new houses being put up, to fill the golf courses around here are 5 bedroomed, 6 bathroom executive houses with 1% 'affordable' houses in the mix. Never a confirmed bus or train link - which excludes anyone over 65 really looking to the future when they have to give up their cars. 350k+ to exclude anyone under 30 350k+ to exclude anyone with a young family and nursey fees The ideal market I think are 50 year olds with teenage children No community centres... a social wasteland No religious centres... a moral wasteland No shops... a community wasteland ...and no golf courses... a health wasteland ....

Read once that a lot of golf courses were built to claim subsidies - think it was one to set aside land, get cash every year.. and also membership fees. Scotland might be slightly different rules, but can go over the courses here (respectfully of course - some of them are a mean shot) - when the snow comes you can see it is only the runners who use them (and the deer).

Never saw the point of golf but the courses to give a bit of green space that is protected from the spread of Barratt shacks. They won't build on golf courses since that is a selling point. (However the architect from a firm nobody has heard of is now an architect from a firm we will forget next week but will have heard of briefly this week)

Pretty much what I could see then, keep it clean, no lubrication points to worry about. Thanks

Had a thought earlier - I've had the battery saw for a few years now and not really touched it (apart from routine stuff - cleaning and sharpening). What does everyone do with battery kit when it comes to looking after it? The petrol saw - needs a good service now but regularly gets filters, cleaning, and so on, compared to the battery one, is a lot more hassle!

I don't do house visits, but the workers who come to mine get offered a cup (filter coffee / PG tips) - and no offence if they say no. Life is too short to worry. Cat in the house - no because they tend to walk all over the work surfaces after licking them selves clean and nibble on any biscuits. However even with friends you get a feel for where is good for a brew and where isn't. Cafes and coffee shops - if the staff look blankly when asking for a white coffee then it is time to walk, anything with frothy shit on top so you can't actually get any coffee to drink, froth gets left on the table. Anything with more milk in that water will seldom get finished. Best cup? 20 miles into a marathon a few years ago (wasn't going to win, enjoying the run), old dears face over a wall asks "would you like a drink" "OK" thinking water, 5 mins later, best china and a proper cup of tea, in the back lanes of the lake district,. Magic.

it says in the article that he has an axe, probably just wanted to use it to chop a tree down, found it too much hard work and stopped. Probably right, blunt.

Yup, my experience too, job agencies wanting to place you somewhere else, and companies with a social media department. Like most social media you have to do the work to make contact with your friends or business contacts, and if you just contact someone else you don't know, are likely to get ignored.

Bulk load? Here would refer to quite a lot of trees, arctic load or similar.... If you put yourself on the tip site, link above, you might get some responses - add yourself as a paid for site and the price you want to pay for how much. This works best for tree surgeons working outside of their usual area and don't want to take a transit van of logs back to their usual site. Apart from that if you want a lot or a regular supply then you need to talk to the local tree surgeons, yellow pages will help here. You can e-mail, phone, or eve take a walk about in the mornings (work from home a few times, take an early walk and you should hear a decent sized chainsaw within 1/2 mile I reckon - walk that way and have a quick word "This is where I am, any chance of some logs"

I get the Covid and the fuel hand outs, all needs to be paid back, however the total borrowing has been slowly rising over the last 10 to 12 years - if it had remained at the lower level then Covid and fuel wouldn't have needed a lot of effort to pay back. Think only the real idiots wouldn't realise it all needs to be paid for at some time - and far better in my opinion for those of us who benefitted to pay it back than handing that debt down to our children and grand children. However it is the politics of it that makes me laugh - all wrapped up saying that saving a pint of beer worth of national insurance a week (or a cigarette with the tax increase) is a great thing when the tax rate has been increased and increased again in recent years which will cost most more than that pint of beer.

Even the politicians can't find the lies to tell to pretend it won't be. I think I saw Hunt saying "We are giving all households more cash in their pocket with the national insurance cut" and in the next breath "yes, taxes will continue to rise"