Steven P

Nah, might be something to do with her being "compassionate" and yet wanting to take away the only shelter that the homeless have. Or might be something to do with her comments undermining the police over the weekend and encouraging the extreme right wing to gather in London to attack the same police. Her views are well known the reason she was sacked this week is incompetence. Oh, nearly forgot, sending a piece out to the press that wasn't approved by Number 10 and undermining her boss.... that might have been it

Problem with chatgpt and generic risk assessments is that they bypass the brain. "Have you got a risk assessment? Yes, crack on" is a very different question to "Have you got a risk assessment that you, and your team have read and understood" can be very different

I'd love to be the journalist making that phone call "Hello High School, can I talk to the head teacher? Yes, sure it is about cat litter. Ahh, head teacher, can you confirm that you supply cat litter for pupils who identify as cats? No? What about trees for those who are dogs? No? a tank for the mermaid ones - what do you call them? No?" I bet I could phone any school and they will deny that LITTER BOXES are PROVIDED for the STUDENTS. Curious use of capital letters..... Capitalise on the rage of those who skim read the headlines as they pass the newsagent in the morning

If only Lidl had some sort of machine this week that could brush away the leaves by some sort of magic.....if not brush them away, perhaps blow them into the neighbours - that I don't like - garden (would I ever...). Might not get a sensible answer from me when I can't see a blade of grass in the gardens, or anywhere for wild life to make a reason to visit, the only pew for birds are those 2 trees in the video Pruning or pollarding will need to be repeated else the tree will regrow more, once started the landlord will have to account for that in their maintenance plans. Catching up on this, did the HA plant the tree or was it as some ones garden at one time? Is it a part of the property or a 'garden plant' perhaps you could find that out - it might be a garden plant to do what you like with (legally), much the same as a rose bush or if you wanted a lawn - tenant looks after it? Don't it always seem to go, That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone....

Interested to see a comment on Question Time last night that the Palestinian march is going nowhere near the Centopath, and yet..... some press would have had you believe they were going to barge the King out of the way, and that is why Tommy Robinson is getting involved. If the story had been all about Armistice day with a side story about this march then all would be peaceful - got to lay some of the blame on the right wing press.

Think we'd have to go right back to the source for that one Sime, suspect the original story started as a half story made into something by some UK papers who are renowned for giving all the facts. After it is in a newspaper it is true of course

£200k houses, they are building the wrong types for first time buyers - round here it is all 'executive homes' with 2 or 3 'affordable' houses thrown in the mix. I reckoned on paying double back, borrow £100k, pay back £200k. For a 200k house with that you need to be earning about £24k (before tax) just for the mortgage, leaves you with about £100 a week on an average salary for everything else. It is affordable if you only work to pay the mortgage. My other assumption was that there would be times when only 1 of us is earning, have to cover all the costs with 1 salary. I don't own an executive home - we could - but would be screwed if anything went wrong. First time buyers need something priced at about £150k max.

A quick wipe with newspaper in the morning before use it to light the stove keeps mine acceptable - but if I didn't it would get dirty

I don't know these things but how far out will tree roots spread at least the tree roots with potential for damage? T'internet reckons 2 to 3 times the radius of the tree, 7 1/2m from the house, that would give the canopy radius of 2.5m 5m diameter), that would be quite a big tree then, many years from now, but not sure, would those roots be the ones that might cause any damages? Second thought might be whether it will affect moisture in the soil, which all depends on the location, hard to tell though. Above about suggesting tree gets damaged, I would not be surprised if there were a few council tree officers read this forum - you get good advice on here, so if you were suggesting to damage a tree be aware of that.

She says that the British People are very compasionate. So either she is lying about the British People, or as a minister, she is not representing the views of the Britsh People

Shaking my head in despair, seams like anyone who doesn't conform to the thought police idea of normality are going to be breaking the law one time or other. Post on an internet forum social media or wherever something that doesn't quite fit our Orwellian future, then expect a knock on the door (AI can be used to monitor what we write). Become homeless by no fault of your own (failed business maybe?), and want a tent to sleep in in the winter, live outside the norm, off you pop, jail time. However buy a nice new 5 bedroom 6 bathroom Barrat home, you should be OK so long as it is a Nissan Cashcow on the drive. A very vague description of the crime means a very broad scope to arrest anyone they don't like.

Surly with all those fans going that should make a pleasant breeze to dry the logs with?

Is the tertiary air via holes in the brick? I wonder whether you can just drill a few holes in the next ones to do the same job? Probably all scientifically designed but drilling a few holes might be better than nothing? (though half of my suspects someone in the factory just poked holes in the template and it worked)

Generally yes, can't help but notice more and more recently as I am out and about that things arn't quite right

Yup, more storms and more frequently on the way I reckon. Probably all carbon dioxide related why they are getting worse.. if only there was some way for society to exist and not burn fossil fuels.....

Was this photo this week - up here anyway we had a decent amount of rain in the last couple of weeks - more than normal - so the ground might be wet from that still? Some kind of soak away - can you just dig a pit and fill it with gravel - should work till the trees establish themselves?

All I can ever think about when that comes up is Paul Simon... I should pop over to songs I am listening to, or rather that will be stuck in my head for the next 4 hours

Saw that the other day - interesting show - and without them we'd be waste deep in bits of dead trees and most life would be dead, perhaps you're right fungus and the cockroaches,

Had a bridge like that for years - a road bridge to no where - they did some road building and with some left over cash built the bridge years early for the next stage, eventually it was all linked together but I think that bridge was a posh stable for about 10 years (nothing under it either, just bridge in a field)

That's going to age a few of us! Thanks.

Suspect if you ever had a problem and needed to call the insurers their question would be "Did you get it swept" rather than "did you use soot inhibitors".. Use dry wood, don't have a smoky fire and sweep the chimney annually.

"The October 7 massacre is among the most depraved events in the history of human cruelty."... OK.. sure it is amongst the most depraved. Would barely scrape top 100 I guess (take that '100' as figuratively, I am not going to list 100 acts worse than this, probably get bored by about 30).

A little bit of genocide is forgivable eh Rwanda?

Mine is a fireline, but I suspect there is a potential to list a lot of manufacturers. Looked at most of the above, and came to the conclusion that the £750+ market (10 years ago) were all going to be reasonable. Stove + installation, liner and so on, I can't remember what each part cost but in total about £2500. Over the time I replace the firebricks every couple of years (Make my own from a castible refractory, but you can cut them yourself from a sheet of vermiculite as a bit cheaper, or buy aftermarket ones (the stove manufacturers bricks are nothing special apart from price), a new window, like above when door was shut enthusiastically onto a log, 1 new door seal rope (needs another now), and a new grate (ours is multifuel, pet-coke ate it away). Running costs apart from fuel I would say about £100 a year (parts and annual sweep). When we replace it I am going for one that sits out into the room more instead of fully in the chimney breast, so a chimney further back or an angled piece, I believe this will deliver more heat into the room. (It will extend maybe 6" into the room)

Last night I was doing this with some leylandii - stacked onto bricks (4" off the ground), 2 long logs length ways and the bricks in the 4 corners - loads of air space and air flow under the stack (also off the wet ground, no pooling water). Onto that there are logs cross ways normal style, next row is 2 logs lengthways and on top normally stacked cross ways and so on - creates tunnels in the stack for the wind to blow through.