Steven P

Haven't looked but this thread suggests there will be loads of cheap double cabs flooding the market any day soon

Your numbers, 7 year old motor, 107k, or about 15k miles a year, works out to be 20 or 30p a mile . If my sums are a fantasy, they are done off the numbers you suggested. And what can your customers afford... going back to your numbers, you've suggested previously that your wage is about £120k, I'd estimate for that you'd need to be taking closer to £160 to cover taxes, expenses, equipment (loans, maintenance, replacements), training, accountancy, holidays, pensions, and everything else... just for you. £1000 a day. Add to you - checking numbers above - 2 passengers on your jobs, £300 daily wage - specialist stuff I am guessing, wouldn't get out of bed for any less, needs £450 for the business, makes about £1700 day rate for your team... and your customers cannot afford an extra £15? I'm not believing that.

Had a conversation earlier, a Lawson Cyprus I knew when I was younger, damaged in the storms so taken down this week.... question was how old do you think it was - 25m high and about 4m girth.. the little calculator I had didn't go to that size though. Any thoughts? Minimum age is 75 A good climbing tree.

but if the tree surgeon said apple....

I'll see your 30m.... Had a couple of Wild Slings knocking about somewhere, they were good

But that is the basis of all business taxes, eventually the cost gets added onto the ultimate purchaser... which is usually you or me. If taxes have to rise to pay for all the stuff we want, (or wanted) then eventually we have to pay and then we are just discussing how they are disguising the cost increase to me and you. Direct taxes or hidden taxes, how do you want to pay? If it is a personal vehicle - Chelsea Tractor style - then that is no bad thing, if it is business use only then the business owner only passes on the cost if they have done their sums.... and likely that all similar businesses will be doing the same. Those that buy from a knock at the door by a wandering man with a transit wouldn't be giving you the business anyway, only those that want the job done right... and giving your customers credit... they are smart enough to know that prices rise.

End of the day though it is a business tool. Same as any tool we use for work, estimate the total number of running hours, the outlay, running costs, taxes, fuels and so on, divide by the length of a job and that is what the customer pays. Simple business maths, if the running costs go up then what the customer pays goes up, or you don't pass on the cost and make a loss. My choice: My kids eat, or the customers kids eat... so my rate increases. The business doesn't take a hit on the extra tax. I can see where the whinges start 'hitting the business' if you haven't done the basics and don't know what it all costs, or if the vehicle isn't a business expense but a personal one... but pass it onto the business and increase the rate. Say 15,000 miles a year, add in 20 to 30p a mile whatever it is to cover the tax increase, a small increase in the price of a job when your charging ££ to the hour to do the work. 50 mile round trip... adds £15, but at a day rate of £300+ it is an amount the customer can afford, add in 2 more passengers, £1k a day, £15 is peanuts for the customer.

Criticism all depends on what you say - the laws are generally not biased though the implementation might be, and some might be more tolerant to criticism than others. Say "I think that is a stupid idea" - about any of them you aren't going to be arrested, but add a side portion of racism (which can be against the law), certain discrimination (again could be illegal) and you are crossing a fine line sometimes (and the fact that some religions tend to be practiced by whites and some by Asians that fine line could be crossed depending on what you say and the religion in question). But the law isn't biased. The I side with Big J though and will often ask "which god"... flusters some.

However no denials that Musk might have picked that idea up from somewhere though.... That and of course, his special wave at the audience. Not all Germans were taught it, it was emphasised when the Nazi party were in power but before and after not.

I don't think there is anything in his nationality Bill. All my adult life ships have been manned by the cheapest - Panama flag used to be cheapest, Russian officers and Filipino crews, as they were here. Some prestige ships use British crews (ferry services, cruse ships). If it was an issue with him being Russian and a 'weapon' a US fuel ship is an odd target given the current armed commitments they have, don't want to drag the US into any conflicts directly. Putin is not stupid. Comes to old fashioned feck-up, asleep at the wheel maybe (Vodka?) and reports that the ship wasn't in the best condition (which is no surprise, the Russian domestic fleet is also maintained by the cheapest)

10 minutes with sheers once a month taking off the new growth, a long term project but that will do it.

That would be a war crime then?

And in other other news, no hell breaking loose in Gaza. Still hostages.

In other news, I see that Trump has just 'bought' a brand new electric car. Does that mean electric cars are a good thing now?

So it night be but again, in this thread, you're missing the point a little. The vote indicates the thought process and priorities of the nations. All - except one - are looking at a bit of positivity (a good thing), with admirable goals such as eradicating poverty, sustainability and so on. Trumps administration doesn't want that. Alone in the world not wanting that.

Not going there again!! It was her car we replaced, (mine went earlier in the year as a natural death, we only need 1 now), so she paid the insurance and taxes on that, paid online, then I paid for the new one, plus the insurance and taxes, but somehow I never saw what she got back. Odd that. So I think it came back as a direct payment to her.

I think we did last year, Mrs Ps account so she might have had a cheque, think it was a direct payment

It's not been road tax for many years, the funds go into the general tax pot and used as and where they want to spend it.

The inference was there. Trying to justify these cuts by saying it won't be the veterans who get sacked and only the management "pen pusher" types.. inferring that the "pen pusher" management types are not going to be veterans. Usually the ones "who do something useful" are the visible ones, the ones who answer the phones or sit on the desks face to face, the bottom of the rung, these are the "useful" ones that you are inferring that veterans should be. There is no moral outrage here as you want us to have, but a realism that in an organisation, for veterans, staffed disproportionally by veterans and with 70,000 sacking in the offering this will affect a large number of veterans, throwing the out onto the street. Unlike your inferences I can accept that the organisation will be evenly distributed with veterans, and those being sacked will be proportionally veterans to, near 20,000 of them. The original comment was the irony that Trump 'bigs them up' in one sentence and then sacks a load of them in the next breath, no outrage, just highlighting his massive double standards. Again.

You're reverting to distractions and irrelevance there Gareth. For the Labour thread, it is not a mission in my life to try to change anyones minds there, I'll leave that for you all to rant... as that thread was set up to be. On topic though, None of us here know who is being sacked, and who works in what position. However a lot of veterans are actually quite intelligent and motivated, there is no reason for them NOT to be in a position of management, rather than your assumption that can't manage and be only suitable for menial front line tasks (the low paid ones). A very arrogant assumption of yours. Pretty sure Johnson,D would prefer to choke on his cornflakes first than give me a reasonable answer, but he is probably the best to ask if military veterans are capable of managing and running departments or companies. I think that they can and I think they will be evenly spaced through that organisation, and so at even risk of being sacked. Near 20,000 of them.

Veterans Affairs Department plans to cut thousands more jobs as part of Trump's cost-cutting efforts WWW.CBSNEWS.COM A memo from the Department of Veterans Affairs' chief of staff said the agency aims to return its workforce to just under 400,000 employees. 27% are veterans, compared to the general population where 6% are veterans. Edit: Sack 70,000 workers, that is nearly 19,000 Veterans sacked.

You might look at the demographic at who they employ... a larger than expected portion are veterans! All sacked....

Not really Stubby, I think it was just an accident / **************** up - but there are those that will make anything up if you add in the US armed forces

This will set the conspiracy theories going... the tanker was chartered to the US military

Didn't see this one over the weekend, but if you are getting a new chain... the big blue dial near the chain takes the chain cover off, might be a good time also to give all that a good clean - generally a wipe with a cloth to get the dust and old oil out. Make a note to clear anything that might be an oil way as well - so generally all a good clean. Putting the new chain on I'd normally go tight enough that the chain spins fairly freely but if you pull it away from the bar - half way along - the drive links come out half way (ie they are still half in the bar: Drive links the bit that runs inside the bar). Probably a whole can of worms there but kind of that tight if no one mentioned that before. Chain tension is probably a turning dial somewhere on the chain cover, loosen the cover a bit, tension, tighten the cover. Note also that a new chain will be sharp enough to cut... Looking at the pictures, as above a blunt chain trying to cut, getting to hot. You can buy files to sharpen your new chain or a shop can do that (If I remember right, mine was about half the price of a new chain), if going DIY, put in an expectation that the first chain won't last as long as subsequent ones. Chain file set I had was about the cost of a chain.