'According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
The rich buying up half of Cornwall instead of just a third - another of the more pernicious effects of Brexit.
Holiday homes should be taxed at punitive rates. Ditto AirBnB's.
Should be minimum x10 Council Tax + special large charge on income and capital gains 👍
Never had you and Pigeon down as campaigners for higher taxes.
I am a working class Conservative. I don't like unearned wealth. Hence I favour lopping the taxes on it. Hope you agree with me.
I'm with you there!
HY will be along in a moment to explain you can't be a true Conservative is you don't support the inalienable right of posh kids to inherit gazillions.
I favour high taxes on inheritance too so yes I will disagree with @HYUFD - he knows my views on this 👍
Many but not all second homes are bought on unearned wealth.
I know based on what you have posted here that you had a hugely successful career and that you have a second property presumably bought on the back of that successful career. And that is fine well done to you. I could afford to buy a (small) second property in Southwold.
So this is not aimed at you personally.
But the acquisition of second and subsequent properties does make it far more difficult for locals to get on the property ladder as it pushes prices up hence my approach on taxation.
I am glad you agree with my approach to IHT. As Meatloaf nearly said '1 out of 2 ain't bad' 👍
1 - Polls show that the silent majority are in *favour*of LTNs, and there is a small screechy minority opposing them. It's hardly a surprise, since every new housing development built since about 1965 is set up exclude rat-runners, and it is a core element of planning policy. Why should people who live in older housing areas be disadvantaged? Example from this week:
In London, a new poll has found that 58% of respondents support the introduction of LTNs, while only 17% oppose blocking residential streets to rat-running motorists.
Support for LTNs has been consistently high in most polling on LTNs since their introduction by the Tory government in 2020.
The newest poll was conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a 23-year-old London-based global polling and strategic consulting company.
In June this year, the firm asked a representative sample of 1,100 Londoners for their views on transport issues, including LTNs.
2 - Funding for cycling and mobility networks is best described as tiny, even before the current Govt cut it off at the ankles. In Central and Inner London - where very small but noticeable amounts of money have been spent, the modal share is now 10%. Perhaps that's where 10% of funding needs to go, since we all pay for public investment in our roads and streets from general taxation?
Realistically, it needs about £30-40 per year per pop of investment, compared to the current £1-2 per head spent in England.
That little? The Scottish figure, to pick somewhere else for comparison, is seemingly at least 45m - cycle route network is 10m alone, which would correspond to the total you give. However the 45m includes walking too (which is logical given much of the work is done for both bikes and feet). OTOH that is direct funding to LAs, alone.
I make the number I give at around £15-20m for Scotland (assuming population of £5m). And I very much agree that there is a huge overlap between walking and cycling.
I think the rational principle is for good quality infrastructure which becomes the default for cycles, e-scooters and large mobility scooters - all of which needs to be as free as possible from motor vehicles. Large mobility scooters at present are forced onto the road when doing more then 4mph; when doing 4mph they are pedestrians and go on pavements.
That setup would require some adjustment to our laws, so the current
I promised polling on LTNs. This is a compilation by Cllr Emily Kerr. Since she is a Green and threfore has a view, but says it is all the ones she can find, I invite alternative lists if anyone has any data.
AFAICS the claim that "the silent majority oppose LTNs" is a fiction.
"Thanks to everyone who contributed: updated chart with new reports here.
First 6 on the list are from areas where an LTN has been implemented, others are all more broad / national."
Absolutely. My dad was laying our estates with LTNs (ie modal filters) in the 1960s for the District Council where I live, and I used to walk to school past new ones being created in older housing areas in Nottingham in the mid-1970s.
The mentality of the opponents is baffling to me, whether it's the accidental (or deliberate) untruths pushed by the likes of Susan Hall and Mark Harper, or the hysterics coming from other quarters.
I think that like progressive rebalancing away from motor-vehicle domination they know it will work very well, and are just scraping around for 'reasons' to defend their personal interests, and are cynical concerning the interests of those living in older housing areas.
The thing is there's a right way and a wrong way to proceed, as there is in most things.
If an estate is created not to be a main road for traffic with no through roads then that works with the through road handling the traffic.
If a pre-existing through road is blocked off with no alternative created, then you are just creating problems without any gain. And simply saying "get on a bike, who needs cars anyway" is just wilful blindness.
If an alternative road is built to replace a through road, then the through road becomes an LTN, then that works.
I've said before, this has been done very sensibly near where I live. The road my kids school is off was part of the A-road to Liverpool. It was a 30mph road with houses, shops, schools etc off it but was a major A road with 2 lanes heading to Liverpool and 1 lane heading away from it.
A new purpose-built dual carriageway has just been built nearby to take the traffic heading to Liverpool. This dual carriageway runs at 50mph (I feel it should be 70mph but c'est la vie).
And the old A-road is no longer marked as the A-road anymore and has now been turned to 20mph. One of the lanes to Liverpool has been removed and now instead there is a dedicated cycle path, with a concrete barrier with plants in it separating the road traffic from cyclists.
Everybody wins. People travelling to Liverpool get to go at 50 instead of 30, with a new dual carriageway there's now more space not less for cars, and with dedicated cycle paths etc people travelling locally can do so now safely whether in cars, bikes or pedestrians.
But to do this properly you need to build more roads to replace the through traffic and provide it an alternative route. An LTN that simply says "we're going to reduce traffic" rather than "traffic should go this way instead" is counterproductive.
I think there is a difference between urban and rural here, and the data in cities does not justify building more roads.
In London the experience is that traffic in LTNs plummets by approx half (as you would expect), and that the traffic on boundary roads stays the same on average across a sample of LTNs with some above average and some below on a spectrum.
So careful detailed design is justified, but not universal increased capacity. Traffic evaporation happens in practice in LTNs, and for half the time on boundary roads too - which is great.
I'll certainly give you that the situation varies for out-of-city settings.
The phenomenon of induced traffic growth and induced congestion is what happens when more roads are built, as is the phenomenon of reduced traffic as less capacity is provided and other modes become relatively more attractive, which is where we are going, in cities and I think in more small town and rural settings.
In my locality the old A38 through the town is now the B6023, still carrying 10k AADT, The new A38 bypass built in the 1990s has an AADT number of about 25k. A beautiful landscaped and lit cycling, walking and wheeling path into the town centre was built, which cannot be used by cycles or pedestrians using mobility aids because they are blocked by anti-access barriers which in theory block motobikes (but don't, yet the local Councillors love it and the local police support it as an easy perceived solution to a non-existent problem), so cyclists and wheelers are forced onto the 1m wide shared path of the A38, or the 10k AADT main road, and other local roads. The A38 used to be national limit, but after about 10 pedestrians and cyclists and pedestrians were killed by drivers on it, average speed cameras were installed.
Pure idiocy and a perfect illustration of why UK road policy is a total mess.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
Why, oh why, does he (or his team) push out such rubbish? Who gives and actual flying fuck about his family going to the flicks?
Do they think it makes the multi-millionaire Sunak family, look more just like normal people?
Just noticed they are going to see Barbie, not Oppenheimer. The tweet is fine by me, and I doubt their wealth will shift a single vote, just like it didn't with all our previous millionaire Prime Ministers.
Tagged Barbenheimer so likely both
I assumed it was just a joke to tie into some mild virality around the two films, rather than actually seeing both today. I know TSE did it, but it'd make a long evening!
Arrived at the cinema last night at 8pm and didn't leave until gone 2.30am.
I thank Allah I have a bladder the size of the Sahara.
Here south of Watford there are toilets in cinemas
And miss even a second of Cillian Murphy staring into the middle distance? I think not.
The thing that really blew my mind, it was maybe half way through the film that I realised that the aides to Lewis Strauss/Robert Downey Jr were Han Solo and Gordon Molloy from The Orville.
Harrison Ford???
No.
Harrison Ford was THE Han Solo in:
A New Hope The Empire Strikes Back Return of the Jedi The Force Awakens The Rise of Skywalker
Aside from those duds - he was very good in 'The Conversation'.
Anyhow, after roughing it in my wooden cabin for roughly half an hour, I went and enjoyed a five course dinner with fine wines, which by remarkable good fortune was on offer not that many yards away, leaving the dog crossly alone with the view of the barren shore and a perpetually grey sky….
This year’s Radio Four Xmas Appeal should be ‘sun lamps for Norway’
Nature is cruel this summer. Half of Europe in unbearable heat, the other half in rain and grey cold skies. A tiny sliver along the channel, Biscay and Southern Baltic at reasonable summer temperatures.
Scotland is great. Long, hot (but not unbearable) early Summer, now changeable. sunny spellls, plenty of rain (but often at night) - bliss.
I’ve had a Swiss colleague moaning about the Scottish weather at me the last couple of weeks because he’s there with in-laws, as if a. Scottish weather is the same as average UK weather, b. I being British am somehow responsible for the weather he is experiencing.
Really annoys me when people bang on about our climate as if it’s somehow a cultural failing we should be apologising for. The Americans are worst at this but the Swiss, Germans and Italians are at it too. (Not so much the French, too busy moaning about how their own country is going to the dogs and Macron is a fascist).
If he's gone to Scotland planning for anything except rain, he's an idiot. You don't visit Scotland for the weather - if you get flashes of glorious sunshine, you're grateful.
Isn't it meant to be the cloudiest country in Europe?
The only places less climatically suited to cricket than England are Scotland and Ireland. It's one of life's strange miracles that the sport developed in a country with weather so inimical to it.
It's interesting to note that the second British Empire only really starts to get going after the MCC is formed - clearly a major motive force was to secure land with a climate better suited to playing cricket.
Depends. South East England (and a lot of East England more generally) is like the Germans in that previous quote complained of. Mild, quite dry, but cloudy. London not only has less absolute rainfall than most European cities but fewer rain days. But it is very cloudy.
My vineyard weather station has rainfall accumulations for May, June and July this year of 21, 23 and 69mm. Not monsoonal.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
I also grew in the overlap, and I just use both - converting as necessary.
The units I can't work with are Usonian recipes measured in "cups".
Sunak’s tenure as the Chancellor of the Exchequer saw 10-year gilt yields increase by 376 per cent. His replacement, Nadhim Zahawi, presided over 10-year gilt yields rising by 38 per cent. Neither Chancellor saw many complaints about this from the press, however. Whilst Kwasi Kwarteng was Chancellor, 10-year gilt yields continued to increase, up 41 per cent from 3.0865 to 4.3462. This is not dissimilar from the increase under Zahawi and certainly less than the increase under Sunak, but still the commentary and comedy circuit is sure that it was the Truss/Kwarteng Government that broke the UK economy.
Incredibly, both the bond and the currency debacle were blamed entirely on the Truss/Kwarteng mini-budget and their “unfunded” tax-cuts — but not on their equally “unfunded” but much, much larger energy subsidies. Truss was forced to replace her Chancellor with Jeremy Hunt. Soon after she was also replaced, by Sunak. Like sacrifices thrown into an erupting volcano, their replacement was an attempt to quell the financial markets. In fact, it was really to quell the baying media — egged on by the Conservative Wets who saw this as a chance to replace Truss with their choice for the leadership: a choice they had been shocked to discover was not also the choice of Conservative Party members.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
I agree with you. Saying you weigh 140 pounds is like saying you are 73 inches tall. Better to use a bigger unit so that the amount of them is smaller, followed by a smaller unit if needed. Perhaps not when the context is losing 4 pounds.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
I also grew in the overlap, and I just use both - converting as necessary.
The units I can't work with are Usonians who measure things in "cups".
It's not as random as it sounds. Think of it as 250ml.
1 - Polls show that the silent majority are in *favour*of LTNs, and there is a small screechy minority opposing them. It's hardly a surprise, since every new housing development built since about 1965 is set up exclude rat-runners, and it is a core element of planning policy. Why should people who live in older housing areas be disadvantaged? Example from this week:
In London, a new poll has found that 58% of respondents support the introduction of LTNs, while only 17% oppose blocking residential streets to rat-running motorists.
Support for LTNs has been consistently high in most polling on LTNs since their introduction by the Tory government in 2020.
The newest poll was conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a 23-year-old London-based global polling and strategic consulting company.
In June this year, the firm asked a representative sample of 1,100 Londoners for their views on transport issues, including LTNs.
2 - Funding for cycling and mobility networks is best described as tiny, even before the current Govt cut it off at the ankles. In Central and Inner London - where very small but noticeable amounts of money have been spent, the modal share is now 10%. Perhaps that's where 10% of funding needs to go, since we all pay for public investment in our roads and streets from general taxation?
Realistically, it needs about £30-40 per year per pop of investment, compared to the current £1-2 per head spent in England.
That little? The Scottish figure, to pick somewhere else for comparison, is seemingly at least 45m - cycle route network is 10m alone, which would correspond to the total you give. However the 45m includes walking too (which is logical given much of the work is done for both bikes and feet). OTOH that is direct funding to LAs, alone.
I make the number I give at around £15-20m for Scotland (assuming population of £5m). And I very much agree that there is a huge overlap between walking and cycling.
I think the rational principle is for good quality infrastructure which becomes the default for cycles, e-scooters and large mobility scooters - all of which needs to be as free as possible from motor vehicles. Large mobility scooters at present are forced onto the road when doing more then 4mph; when doing 4mph they are pedestrians and go on pavements.
That setup would require some adjustment to our laws, so the current
I promised polling on LTNs. This is a compilation by Cllr Emily Kerr. Since she is a Green and threfore has a view, but says it is all the ones she can find, I invite alternative lists if anyone has any data.
AFAICS the claim that "the silent majority oppose LTNs" is a fiction.
"Thanks to everyone who contributed: updated chart with new reports here.
First 6 on the list are from areas where an LTN has been implemented, others are all more broad / national."
Absolutely. My dad was laying our estates with LTNs (ie modal filters) in the 1960s for the District Council where I live, and I used to walk to school past new ones being created in older housing areas in Nottingham in the mid-1970s.
The mentality of the opponents is baffling to me, whether it's the accidental (or deliberate) untruths pushed by the likes of Susan Hall and Mark Harper, or the hysterics coming from other quarters.
I think that like progressive rebalancing away from motor-vehicle domination they know it will work very well, and are just scraping around for 'reasons' to defend their personal interests, and are cynical concerning the interests of those living in older housing areas.
The thing is there's a right way and a wrong way to proceed, as there is in most things.
If an estate is created not to be a main road for traffic with no through roads then that works with the through road handling the traffic.
If a pre-existing through road is blocked off with no alternative created, then you are just creating problems without any gain. And simply saying "get on a bike, who needs cars anyway" is just wilful blindness.
If an alternative road is built to replace a through road, then the through road becomes an LTN, then that works.
I've said before, this has been done very sensibly near where I live. The road my kids school is off was part of the A-road to Liverpool. It was a 30mph road with houses, shops, schools etc off it but was a major A road with 2 lanes heading to Liverpool and 1 lane heading away from it.
A new purpose-built dual carriageway has just been built nearby to take the traffic heading to Liverpool. This dual carriageway runs at 50mph (I feel it should be 70mph but c'est la vie).
And the old A-road is no longer marked as the A-road anymore and has now been turned to 20mph. One of the lanes to Liverpool has been removed and now instead there is a dedicated cycle path, with a concrete barrier with plants in it separating the road traffic from cyclists.
Everybody wins. People travelling to Liverpool get to go at 50 instead of 30, with a new dual carriageway there's now more space not less for cars, and with dedicated cycle paths etc people travelling locally can do so now safely whether in cars, bikes or pedestrians.
But to do this properly you need to build more roads to replace the through traffic and provide it an alternative route. An LTN that simply says "we're going to reduce traffic" rather than "traffic should go this way instead" is counterproductive.
I think there is a difference between urban and rural here, and the data in cities does not justify building more roads.
In London the experience is that traffic in LTNs plummets by approx half (as you would expect), and that the traffic on boundary roads stays the same on average across a sample of LTNs with some above average and some below on a spectrum.
So careful detailed design is justified, but not universal increased capacity. Traffic evaporation happens in practice in LTNs, and for half the time on boundary roads too - which is great.
I'll certainly give you that the situation varies for out-of-city settings.
The phenomenon of induced traffic growth and induced congestion is what happens when more roads are built, as is the phenomenon of reduced traffic as less capacity is provided and other modes become relatively more attractive, which is where we are going, in cities and I think in more small town and rural settings.
In my locality the old A38 through the town is now the B6023, still carrying 10k AADT, The new A38 bypass built in the 1990s has an AADT number of about 25k. A beautiful landscaped and lit cycling, walking and wheeling path into the town centre was built, which cannot be used by cycles or pedestrians using mobility aids because they are blocked by anti-access barriers which in theory block motobikes (but don't, yet the local Councillors love it and the local police support it as an easy perceived solution to a non-existent problem), so cyclists and wheelers are forced onto the 1m wide shared path of the A38, or the 10k AADT main road, and other local roads. The A38 used to be national limit, but after about 10 cyclists and pedestrians were killed by drivers on it, average speed cameras were installed.
Pure idiocy and a perfect illustration of why UK road policy is a total mess.
(I'm not sure why that reply to @Carnyx keeps reappearing !)
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
A 1,000 lb bomb weighs 454 kilos
Helpful government sponsored mnemonic from 1973
Two and a quarter pounds of ham Weighs about a kilogram
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
I also grew in the overlap, and I just use both - converting as necessary.
Easy enough when working from a benchmark such as 11 stone = 70 kg. Which works much better as a benchmark than 154 pounds = 70 kg
'According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
The rich buying up half of Cornwall instead of just a third - another of the more pernicious effects of Brexit.
Holiday homes should be taxed at punitive rates. Ditto AirBnB's.
Should be minimum x10 Council Tax + special large charge on income and capital gains 👍
Never had you and Pigeon down as campaigners for higher taxes.
I am a working class Conservative. I don't like unearned wealth. Hence I favour lopping the taxes on it. Hope you agree with me.
I'm with you there!
HY will be along in a moment to explain you can't be a true Conservative is you don't support the inalienable right of posh kids to inherit gazillions.
I favour high taxes on inheritance too so yes I will disagree with @HYUFD - he knows my views on this 👍
1 - Polls show that the silent majority are in *favour*of LTNs, and there is a small screechy minority opposing them. It's hardly a surprise, since every new housing development built since about 1965 is set up exclude rat-runners, and it is a core element of planning policy. Why should people who live in older housing areas be disadvantaged? Example from this week:
In London, a new poll has found that 58% of respondents support the introduction of LTNs, while only 17% oppose blocking residential streets to rat-running motorists.
Support for LTNs has been consistently high in most polling on LTNs since their introduction by the Tory government in 2020.
The newest poll was conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a 23-year-old London-based global polling and strategic consulting company.
In June this year, the firm asked a representative sample of 1,100 Londoners for their views on transport issues, including LTNs.
2 - Funding for cycling and mobility networks is best described as tiny, even before the current Govt cut it off at the ankles. In Central and Inner London - where very small but noticeable amounts of money have been spent, the modal share is now 10%. Perhaps that's where 10% of funding needs to go, since we all pay for public investment in our roads and streets from general taxation?
Realistically, it needs about £30-40 per year per pop of investment, compared to the current £1-2 per head spent in England.
That little? The Scottish figure, to pick somewhere else for comparison, is seemingly at least 45m - cycle route network is 10m alone, which would correspond to the total you give. However the 45m includes walking too (which is logical given much of the work is done for both bikes and feet). OTOH that is direct funding to LAs, alone.
I make the number I give at around £15-20m for Scotland (assuming population of £5m). And I very much agree that there is a huge overlap between walking and cycling.
I think the rational principle is for good quality infrastructure which becomes the default for cycles, e-scooters and large mobility scooters - all of which needs to be as free as possible from motor vehicles. Large mobility scooters at present are forced onto the road when doing more then 4mph; when doing 4mph they are pedestrians and go on pavements.
That setup would require some adjustment to our laws, so the current
I promised polling on LTNs. This is a compilation by Cllr Emily Kerr. Since she is a Green and threfore has a view, but says it is all the ones she can find, I invite alternative lists if anyone has any data.
AFAICS the claim that "the silent majority oppose LTNs" is a fiction.
"Thanks to everyone who contributed: updated chart with new reports here.
First 6 on the list are from areas where an LTN has been implemented, others are all more broad / national."
Absolutely. My dad was laying our estates with LTNs (ie modal filters) in the 1960s for the District Council where I live, and I used to walk to school past new ones being created in older housing areas in Nottingham in the mid-1970s.
The mentality of the opponents is baffling to me, whether it's the accidental (or deliberate) untruths pushed by the likes of Susan Hall and Mark Harper, or the hysterics coming from other quarters.
I think that like progressive rebalancing away from motor-vehicle domination they know it will work very well, and are just scraping around for 'reasons' to defend their personal interests, and are cynical concerning the interests of those living in older housing areas.
The thing is there's a right way and a wrong way to proceed, as there is in most things.
If an estate is created not to be a main road for traffic with no through roads then that works with the through road handling the traffic.
If a pre-existing through road is blocked off with no alternative created, then you are just creating problems without any gain. And simply saying "get on a bike, who needs cars anyway" is just wilful blindness.
If an alternative road is built to replace a through road, then the through road becomes an LTN, then that works.
I've said before, this has been done very sensibly near where I live. The road my kids school is off was part of the A-road to Liverpool. It was a 30mph road with houses, shops, schools etc off it but was a major A road with 2 lanes heading to Liverpool and 1 lane heading away from it.
A new purpose-built dual carriageway has just been built nearby to take the traffic heading to Liverpool. This dual carriageway runs at 50mph (I feel it should be 70mph but c'est la vie).
And the old A-road is no longer marked as the A-road anymore and has now been turned to 20mph. One of the lanes to Liverpool has been removed and now instead there is a dedicated cycle path, with a concrete barrier with plants in it separating the road traffic from cyclists.
Everybody wins. People travelling to Liverpool get to go at 50 instead of 30, with a new dual carriageway there's now more space not less for cars, and with dedicated cycle paths etc people travelling locally can do so now safely whether in cars, bikes or pedestrians.
But to do this properly you need to build more roads to replace the through traffic and provide it an alternative route. An LTN that simply says "we're going to reduce traffic" rather than "traffic should go this way instead" is counterproductive.
I think there is a difference between urban and rural here, and the data in cities does not justify building more roads.
In London the experience is that traffic in LTNs plummets by approx half (as you would expect), and that the traffic on boundary roads stays the same on average across a sample of LTNs with some above average and some below on a spectrum.
So careful detailed design is justified, but not universal increased capacity. Traffic evaporation happens in practice in LTNs, and for half the time on boundary roads too - which is great.
I'll certainly give you that the situation varies for out-of-city settings.
The phenomenon of induced traffic growth and induced congestion is what happens when more roads are built, as is the phenomenon of reduced traffic as less capacity is provided and other modes become relatively more attractive, which is where we are going, in cities and I think in more small town and rural settings.
In my locality the old A38 through the town is now the B6023, still carrying 10k AADT, The new A38 bypass built in the 1990s has an AADT number of about 25k. A beautiful landscaped and lit cycling, walking and wheeling path into the town centre was built, which cannot be used by cycles or pedestrians using mobility aids because they are blocked by anti-access barriers which in theory block motobikes (but don't, yet the local Councillors love it and the local police support it as an easy perceived solution to a non-existent problem), so cyclists and wheelers are forced onto the 1m wide shared path of the A38, or the 10k AADT main road, and other local roads. The A38 used to be national limit, but after about 10 pedestrians and cyclists and pedestrians were killed by drivers on it, average speed cameras were installed.
Pure idiocy and a perfect illustration of why UK road policy is a total mess.
(I'm not sure why that reply to Carnyx nyx keeps reappearing !)
Sometimes vanilla will randomly save your reply/partial reply as a draft automatically just before you hit post. It seems to then get confused and cause it to reappear on the next or even multiple posts unless you go into My Drafts and delete it manually.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
A 1,000 lb bomb weighs 454 kilos
Helpful government sponsored mnemonic from 1973
Two and a quarter pounds of ham Weighs about a kilogram
'According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
The rich buying up half of Cornwall instead of just a third - another of the more pernicious effects of Brexit.
Holiday homes should be taxed at punitive rates. Ditto AirBnB's.
Should be minimum x10 Council Tax + special large charge on income and capital gains 👍
Never had you and Pigeon down as campaigners for higher taxes.
I am a working class Conservative. I don't like unearned wealth. Hence I favour lopping the taxes on it. Hope you agree with me.
I'm with you there!
HY will be along in a moment to explain you can't be a true Conservative is you don't support the inalienable right of posh kids to inherit gazillions.
I favour high taxes on inheritance too so yes I will disagree with @HYUFD - he knows my views on this 👍
Many but not all second homes are bought on unearned wealth.
I know based on what you have posted here that you had a hugely successful career and that you have a second property presumably bought on the back of that successful career. And that is fine well done to you. I could afford to buy a (small) second property in Southwold.
So this is not aimed at you personally.
But the acquisition of second and subsequent properties does make it far more difficult for locals to get on the property ladder as it pushes prices up hence my approach on taxation.
I am glad you agree with my approach to IHT. As Meatloaf nearly said '1 out of 2 ain't bad' 👍
'Hugely' I think might be somewhat of an exaggeration to put it mildly. Comfortably off and careful with money might be a better description.
I actually agree with you on the issue with 2nd homes. Not sure how you deal with it without becoming a nanny state though. I don't want to go down the line of banning stuff so CGT and IHT seem the obvious options.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
Edit: Of course, my weight in pounds is 199.5, so sticking with Stones may be to my advantage.
You're reading too much into my comment. I just meant it's more convenient.
Anyhow, after roughing it in my wooden cabin for roughly half an hour, I went and enjoyed a five course dinner with fine wines, which by remarkable good fortune was on offer not that many yards away, leaving the dog crossly alone with the view of the barren shore and a perpetually grey sky….
This year’s Radio Four Xmas Appeal should be ‘sun lamps for Norway’
Nature is cruel this summer. Half of Europe in unbearable heat, the other half in rain and grey cold skies. A tiny sliver along the channel, Biscay and Southern Baltic at reasonable summer temperatures.
Scotland is great. Long, hot (but not unbearable) early Summer, now changeable. sunny spellls, plenty of rain (but often at night) - bliss.
I’ve had a Swiss colleague moaning about the Scottish weather at me the last couple of weeks because he’s there with in-laws, as if a. Scottish weather is the same as average UK weather, b. I being British am somehow responsible for the weather he is experiencing.
Really annoys me when people bang on about our climate as if it’s somehow a cultural failing we should be apologising for. The Americans are worst at this but the Swiss, Germans and Italians are at it too. (Not so much the French, too busy moaning about how their own country is going to the dogs and Macron is a fascist).
If he's gone to Scotland planning for anything except rain, he's an idiot. You don't visit Scotland for the weather - if you get flashes of glorious sunshine, you're grateful.
Isn't it meant to be the cloudiest country in Europe?
The only places less climatically suited to cricket than England are Scotland and Ireland. It's one of life's strange miracles that the sport developed in a country with weather so inimical to it.
It's interesting to note that the second British Empire only really starts to get going after the MCC is formed - clearly a major motive force was to secure land with a climate better suited to playing cricket.
In furtherance of the "Empire as outdoor relief for the upper classes" policy?
'According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
The rich buying up half of Cornwall instead of just a third - another of the more pernicious effects of Brexit.
Holiday homes should be taxed at punitive rates. Ditto AirBnB's.
Should be minimum x10 Council Tax + special large charge on income and capital gains 👍
Never had you and Pigeon down as campaigners for higher taxes.
I am a working class Conservative. I don't like unearned wealth. Hence I favour lopping the taxes on it. Hope you agree with me.
I'm with you there!
HY will be along in a moment to explain you can't be a true Conservative is you don't support the inalienable right of posh kids to inherit gazillions.
I favour high taxes on inheritance too so yes I will disagree with @HYUFD - he knows my views on this 👍
Many but not all second homes are bought on unearned wealth.
I know based on what you have posted here that you had a hugely successful career and that you have a second property presumably bought on the back of that successful career. And that is fine well done to you. I could afford to buy a (small) second property in Southwold.
So this is not aimed at you personally.
But the acquisition of second and subsequent properties does make it far more difficult for locals to get on the property ladder as it pushes prices up hence my approach on taxation.
I am glad you agree with my approach to IHT. As Meatloaf nearly said '1 out of 2 ain't bad' 👍
'Hugely' I think might be somewhat of an exaggeration to put it mildly. Comfortably off and careful with money might be a better description.
I actually agree with you on the issue with 2nd homes. Not sure how you deal with it without becoming a nanny state though. I don't want to go down the line of banning stuff so CGT and IHT seem the obvious options.
Absolutely agree with you, we don't want to be banning second homes, dealing with it through taxation is much better 👍
Why, oh why, does he (or his team) push out such rubbish? Who gives and actual flying fuck about his family going to the flicks?
Do they think it makes the multi-millionaire Sunak family, look more just like normal people?
Just noticed they are going to see Barbie, not Oppenheimer. The tweet is fine by me, and I doubt their wealth will shift a single vote, just like it didn't with all our previous millionaire Prime Ministers.
Tagged Barbenheimer so likely both
I assumed it was just a joke to tie into some mild virality around the two films, rather than actually seeing both today. I know TSE did it, but it'd make a long evening!
Arrived at the cinema last night at 8pm and didn't leave until gone 2.30am.
I thank Allah I have a bladder the size of the Sahara.
Here south of Watford there are toilets in cinemas
And miss even a second of Cillian Murphy staring into the middle distance? I think not.
The thing that really blew my mind, it was maybe half way through the film that I realised that the aides to Lewis Strauss/Robert Downey Jr were Han Solo and Gordon Molloy from The Orville.
It was one of those films where because the director is acclaimed lots of minor roles are filled by recognisable figures when it really could have been anyone (Asteroid City was the same, except shit). Granted the chap from The Orville would not be that known to most.
I had no idea who Ensign Boimler was playing he was in it so briefly - turns out Richard Feynman according to IMDB.
Personally speaking, think I'll wait for the book.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
I don't agree at all.
Saying someone has changed from 135 lbs to 145 lbs means quite clearly a 10lb change. It is clean and simple to understand.
Stones don't add anything useful.
And 9 stone 9 to 10 stone 9 would be quite clearly a 1 stone change. It is clean and simple to understand.
If you are cherry picking examples you are losing.
But @BartholomewRoberts always works no matter what the difference in the two weights are. You take one from the other. But with mixed units (stones and pounds) you have to do a conversion eg 10 stone 8 pounds to 11 stone 4 pounds. I know it isn't rocket science but it is a smidging more maths and you need to know how many pounds are in a stone.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
I could quite happily let you have 10 kg
Was discussing this with a very heavy colleague the other day. We can do organ transplants. A Nobel Prize nailed on for the person who invents weight transplants.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
180cm and 67kg here, seemingly for years now. It’s a nice balanced height and weight I think. I used to be closer to 60 kilos and a tad on the scrawny side.
'According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
The rich buying up half of Cornwall instead of just a third - another of the more pernicious effects of Brexit.
Holiday homes should be taxed at punitive rates. Ditto AirBnB's.
Should be minimum x10 Council Tax + special large charge on income and capital gains 👍
Never had you and Pigeon down as campaigners for higher taxes.
I am a working class Conservative. I don't like unearned wealth. Hence I favour lopping the taxes on it. Hope you agree with me.
I'm with you there!
HY will be along in a moment to explain you can't be a true Conservative is you don't support the inalienable right of posh kids to inherit gazillions.
I favour high taxes on inheritance too so yes I will disagree with @HYUFD - he knows my views on this 👍
Many but not all second homes are bought on unearned wealth.
I know based on what you have posted here that you had a hugely successful career and that you have a second property presumably bought on the back of that successful career. And that is fine well done to you. I could afford to buy a (small) second property in Southwold.
So this is not aimed at you personally.
But the acquisition of second and subsequent properties does make it far more difficult for locals to get on the property ladder as it pushes prices up hence my approach on taxation.
I am glad you agree with my approach to IHT. As Meatloaf nearly said '1 out of 2 ain't bad' 👍
'Hugely' I think might be somewhat of an exaggeration to put it mildly. Comfortably off and careful with money might be a better description.
I actually agree with you on the issue with 2nd homes. Not sure how you deal with it without becoming a nanny state though. I don't want to go down the line of banning stuff so CGT and IHT seem the obvious options.
Absolutely agree with you, we don't want to be banning second homes, dealing with it through taxation is much better 👍
Other countries have far higher rates of second home ownership than us. In Italy it’s practically the norm for most families. All my Nordic colleagues have summer cabins too.
The issue is supply vs demand. Taxing second home ownership doesn’t make any meaningful difference except in one or two super popular tourist hotspots. Just build loads more houses.
1 - Polls show that the silent majority are in *favour*of LTNs, and there is a small screechy minority opposing them. It's hardly a surprise, since every new housing development built since about 1965 is set up exclude rat-runners, and it is a core element of planning policy. Why should people who live in older housing areas be disadvantaged? Example from this week:
In London, a new poll has found that 58% of respondents support the introduction of LTNs, while only 17% oppose blocking residential streets to rat-running motorists.
Support for LTNs has been consistently high in most polling on LTNs since their introduction by the Tory government in 2020.
The newest poll was conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a 23-year-old London-based global polling and strategic consulting company.
In June this year, the firm asked a representative sample of 1,100 Londoners for their views on transport issues, including LTNs.
2 - Funding for cycling and mobility networks is best described as tiny, even before the current Govt cut it off at the ankles. In Central and Inner London - where very small but noticeable amounts of money have been spent, the modal share is now 10%. Perhaps that's where 10% of funding needs to go, since we all pay for public investment in our roads and streets from general taxation?
Realistically, it needs about £30-40 per year per pop of investment, compared to the current £1-2 per head spent in England.
That little? The Scottish figure, to pick somewhere else for comparison, is seemingly at least 45m - cycle route network is 10m alone, which would correspond to the total you give. However the 45m includes walking too (which is logical given much of the work is done for both bikes and feet). OTOH that is direct funding to LAs, alone.
I make the number I give at around £15-20m for Scotland (assuming population of £5m). And I very much agree that there is a huge overlap between walking and cycling.
I think the rational principle is for good quality infrastructure which becomes the default for cycles, e-scooters and large mobility scooters - all of which needs to be as free as possible from motor vehicles. Large mobility scooters at present are forced onto the road when doing more then 4mph; when doing 4mph they are pedestrians and go on pavements.
That setup would require some adjustment to our laws, so the current
I promised polling on LTNs. This is a compilation by Cllr Emily Kerr. Since she is a Green and threfore has a view, but says it is all the ones she can find, I invite alternative lists if anyone has any data.
AFAICS the claim that "the silent majority oppose LTNs" is a fiction.
"Thanks to everyone who contributed: updated chart with new reports here.
First 6 on the list are from areas where an LTN has been implemented, others are all more broad / national."
Absolutely. My dad was laying our estates with LTNs (ie modal filters) in the 1960s for the District Council where I live, and I used to walk to school past new ones being created in older housing areas in Nottingham in the mid-1970s.
The mentality of the opponents is baffling to me, whether it's the accidental (or deliberate) untruths pushed by the likes of Susan Hall and Mark Harper, or the hysterics coming from other quarters.
I think that like progressive rebalancing away from motor-vehicle domination they know it will work very well, and are just scraping around for 'reasons' to defend their personal interests, and are cynical concerning the interests of those living in older housing areas.
The thing is there's a right way and a wrong way to proceed, as there is in most things.
If an estate is created not to be a main road for traffic with no through roads then that works with the through road handling the traffic.
If a pre-existing through road is blocked off with no alternative created, then you are just creating problems without any gain. And simply saying "get on a bike, who needs cars anyway" is just wilful blindness.
If an alternative road is built to replace a through road, then the through road becomes an LTN, then that works.
I've said before, this has been done very sensibly near where I live. The road my kids school is off was part of the A-road to Liverpool. It was a 30mph road with houses, shops, schools etc off it but was a major A road with 2 lanes heading to Liverpool and 1 lane heading away from it.
A new purpose-built dual carriageway has just been built nearby to take the traffic heading to Liverpool. This dual carriageway runs at 50mph (I feel it should be 70mph but c'est la vie).
And the old A-road is no longer marked as the A-road anymore and has now been turned to 20mph. One of the lanes to Liverpool has been removed and now instead there is a dedicated cycle path, with a concrete barrier with plants in it separating the road traffic from cyclists.
Everybody wins. People travelling to Liverpool get to go at 50 instead of 30, with a new dual carriageway there's now more space not less for cars, and with dedicated cycle paths etc people travelling locally can do so now safely whether in cars, bikes or pedestrians.
But to do this properly you need to build more roads to replace the through traffic and provide it an alternative route. An LTN that simply says "we're going to reduce traffic" rather than "traffic should go this way instead" is counterproductive.
I. A beautiful landscaped and lit cycling, walking and wheeling path into the town centre was built, which cannot be used by cycles or pedestrians using mobility aids because they are blocked by anti-access barriers which in theory block motobikes (but don't, yet the local Councillors love it and the local police support it as an easy perceived solution to a non-existent problem), so cyclists and wheelers are forced onto the 1m wide shared path of the A38, or the 10k AADT main road, and other local roads.
Snipped to what I wanted to query, I don't see how a barrier can be a block to bicycles but not a block to motorcylces which are wider. Care to explain?
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
I don't know how anyone can be 10 stones and 5'10. Seems like mission impossible to me. But that's just me.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
I could quite happily let you have 10 kg
Was discussing this with a very heavy colleague the other day. We can do organ transplants. A Nobel Prize nailed on for the person who invents weight transplants.
I lost about 7 kg for my recent cycle ride, similarly a couple of years ago I did the same for my Pitt special flight, but I am still 8 kg above my weight when I was playing competitive squash some 40 years ago. Because I eat and drink a lot, I do find it easy to lose weight, but it goes back on again when I get back into the old habits.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
I don't know how anyone can be 10 stones and 5'10. Seems like mission impossible to me. But that's just me.
Till I hit 45 my weight varied between 10 stone 2 and 10 stone 5 and I am about 5'10
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
I don't know how anyone can be 10 stones and 5'10. Seems like mission impossible to me. But that's just me.
It's proving quite a challenge for me too. But from the opposite direction.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
That's an interesting assertion.
I give my weight in stones generally, but why does it make 'more sense'? Certainly it is what I am used to, but pretty much any other option would make just as much sense.
As someone who grew up in-between metric and imperial - I have no idea of the real meaning of either. Which isn't helped by my local GP surgery switching between units depending who I am talking to.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
I also grew in the overlap, and I just use both - converting as necessary.
Easy enough when working from a benchmark such as 11 stone = 70 kg. Which works much better as a benchmark than 154 pounds = 70 kg
The ones I normally have in my head are conversion factors like .3048 (metres in a foot), 2.54 (obvious) or 1.1 (yards in a metre), followed by approximations. And mental arithmetic using traditional formulae for deconstructing or approximating numbers - does anyone else use a^2 + 2ab + b^2 and the difference of two squares?
For body weight etc, since I have now had type I Diabetes for 20+ years, I have become necessarily comfortable around formulae for BMI and all sorts of diet related stuff from packets, insulin ratios vs blood glucose level predictions from both ends, and grams of carb. And carbohydrate estimation and bg level consequences on the fly in restaurants and when cooking, and when weighing ingredients.
Having grown up watching Countdown Numbers Games is a real benefit for diabetics !
Makes TSE and Morris Dancer look like real historians.
"[The aggressive policy] resulted in the national tragedy of 1939, when Poland was left by the Western Allies to be eaten by the German war machine and effectively lost its independence and statehood, which was restored to a great extent thanks to the Soviet Union." - Putin.
For some in the UK, even allowing for the higher fuel prices, RVs might be better choices than second homes. Then you could, for example, vacation in whatever part of the UK has the best weather, at the time.
Appalled by all the disgustingly healthy and skinny PBers. Spare a thought for the short podgesters amonst us.
Maybe that large steak I had for dinner wasn't the best option.
Thing is. It isn't healthy. I was hovering around a BMI of 20 which is borderline .Then got COVID in February which affected my appetite for a good few months. Hence a medical intervention. Got no wriggle room on my weight. If we had famine I'd go before you. And you could eat my corpse. Not that there'd be much on it.
For some in the UK, even allowing for the higher fuel prices, RVs might be better choices than second homes. Then you could, for example, vacation in whatever part of the UK has the best weather, at the time.
Appalled by all the disgustingly healthy and skinny PBers. Spare a thought for the short podgesters amonst us.
Maybe that large steak I had for dinner wasn't the best option.
Thing is. It isn't healthy. I was hovering around a BMI of 20 which is borderline .Then got COVID in February which affected my appetite for a good few months. Hence a medical intervention. Got no wriggle room on my weight. If we had famine I'd go before you.
True enough. I shall pat the old famine buffer zone fondly the next time some human adonis with 0% body fat goes jogging by. I'll be the one laughing when the bombs hit and the food supply is disrupted.
At 18, more than sixty years ago, I was just a trifle under 5'11", and weighed about 125 pounds. So, about 9 stone. (I was in a sport in my little high school where there were weight classes, which is how I happen to remember that detail.)
Mostly genetics, put partly from working on a farm.
Appalled by all the disgustingly healthy and skinny PBers. Spare a thought for the short podgesters amonst us.
Maybe that large steak I had for dinner wasn't the best option.
Thing is. It isn't healthy. I was hovering around a BMI of 20 which is borderline .Then got COVID in February which affected my appetite for a good few months. Hence a medical intervention. Got no wriggle room on my weight. If we had famine I'd go before you.
True enough. I shall pat the old famine buffer zone fondly the next time some human adonis with 0% body fat goes jogging by. I'll be the one laughing when the bombs hit and the food supply is disrupted.
'According to figures released this week by the English Housing Survey, the proportion of English owners of second homes who have properties in Europe has fallen again, with 60% of holiday homes located in the UK rather than outside it.
The rich buying up half of Cornwall instead of just a third - another of the more pernicious effects of Brexit.
Holiday homes should be taxed at punitive rates. Ditto AirBnB's.
Should be minimum x10 Council Tax + special large charge on income and capital gains 👍
Never had you and Pigeon down as campaigners for higher taxes.
I am a working class Conservative. I don't like unearned wealth. Hence I favour lopping the taxes on it. Hope you agree with me.
I'm with you there!
HY will be along in a moment to explain you can't be a true Conservative is you don't support the inalienable right of posh kids to inherit gazillions.
I favour high taxes on inheritance too so yes I will disagree with @HYUFD - he knows my views on this 👍
Many but not all second homes are bought on unearned wealth.
I know based on what you have posted here that you had a hugely successful career and that you have a second property presumably bought on the back of that successful career. And that is fine well done to you. I could afford to buy a (small) second property in Southwold.
So this is not aimed at you personally.
But the acquisition of second and subsequent properties does make it far more difficult for locals to get on the property ladder as it pushes prices up hence my approach on taxation.
I am glad you agree with my approach to IHT. As Meatloaf nearly said '1 out of 2 ain't bad' 👍
'Hugely' I think might be somewhat of an exaggeration to put it mildly. Comfortably off and careful with money might be a better description.
I actually agree with you on the issue with 2nd homes. Not sure how you deal with it without becoming a nanny state though. I don't want to go down the line of banning stuff so CGT and IHT seem the obvious options.
Absolutely agree with you, we don't want to be banning second homes, dealing with it through taxation is much better 👍
Other countries have far higher rates of second home ownership than us. In Italy it’s practically the norm for most families. All my Nordic colleagues have summer cabins too.
The issue is supply vs demand. Taxing second home ownership doesn’t make any meaningful difference except in one or two super popular tourist hotspots. Just build loads more houses.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
I could quite happily let you have 10 kg
Was discussing this with a very heavy colleague the other day. We can do organ transplants. A Nobel Prize nailed on for the person who invents weight transplants.
SeanT nervously entered Doctor foxy's surgery. One thing troubled him: where was the ever so slightly effete and woke foxy? Foxy's chair was behind the desk at the far end of the room, though its back was facing SeanT. He slowly approached the desk. It was when he was halfway across the surgery that all of a sudden, the chair swivelled round, and there, to SeanT's infinite horror, instead of the mild-mannered Foxy, was the dread Lipo-Suction Monster!
SeanT gaped in amazement; he was completely and utterly taken aback by the presence of the black-cloaked creature. The Liposuction Monster's eyes met SeanT's, and his mouth curled upwards in a malicious grin.
"Ah, my boy, we meet again!" the Lipo-Suction Monster exclaimed in his comically heavy Transylvanian accent. "Er, I see you still haven't slimmed down yet. Why not?" He leant across the desk as he spoke the last two words.
"Um, I tried, Lipo! Honest, I tried!" SeanT answered, sensing what was going to happen next wouldn't entirely be to his advantage.
"Trying is not good enough!" roared the Lipo-Suction Monster. And he leapt out from the chair, and over the desk, grabbing SeanT in the process, and throwing him onto the nearby couch. Laughing maniacally, the Monster returned to the desk, opened one of the drawers and produced a massive hack-saw!
"No! Please, Lipo! Please, no!" SeanT screamed.
The monster went back to his victim, who was quivering with fear, resigned to his fate. SeanT screamed as the evil creature proceeded to chop off his pseudo-feminine moobs!
Mutilated and bleeding profusely, he begged for mercy, but the Liposuction Monster was adamant to teach him a lesson. He did something which even SeanT swore was just a myth. He opened his mouth and extended his twelve-inch long proboscis, and - once again giggling dementedly - punctured the poor sod's blubbery abdominal region with it.
And sucked hard!
SeanT squealed in agony as he felt the monster suck up all of his precious fat, but the squeals soon faded away as within minutes he was quite literally nothing but a sack of skin and bone, fat-less, yes, but unfortunately life-less too....
1 - Polls show that the silent majority are in *favour*of LTNs, and there is a small screechy minority opposing them. It's hardly a surprise, since every new housing development built since about 1965 is set up exclude rat-runners, and it is a core element of planning policy. Why should people who live in older housing areas be disadvantaged? Example from this week:
In London, a new poll has found that 58% of respondents support the introduction of LTNs, while only 17% oppose blocking residential streets to rat-running motorists.
Support for LTNs has been consistently high in most polling on LTNs since their introduction by the Tory government in 2020.
The newest poll was conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a 23-year-old London-based global polling and strategic consulting company.
In June this year, the firm asked a representative sample of 1,100 Londoners for their views on transport issues, including LTNs.
2 - Funding for cycling and mobility networks is best described as tiny, even before the current Govt cut it off at the ankles. In Central and Inner London - where very small but noticeable amounts of money have been spent, the modal share is now 10%. Perhaps that's where 10% of funding needs to go, since we all pay for public investment in our roads and streets from general taxation?
Realistically, it needs about £30-40 per year per pop of investment, compared to the current £1-2 per head spent in England.
That little? The Scottish figure, to pick somewhere else for comparison, is seemingly at least 45m - cycle route network is 10m alone, which would correspond to the total you give. However the 45m includes walking too (which is logical given much of the work is done for both bikes and feet). OTOH that is direct funding to LAs, alone.
I make the number I give at around £15-20m for Scotland (assuming population of £5m). And I very much agree that there is a huge overlap between walking and cycling.
I think the rational principle is for good quality infrastructure which becomes the default for cycles, e-scooters and large mobility scooters - all of which needs to be as free as possible from motor vehicles. Large mobility scooters at present are forced onto the road when doing more then 4mph; when doing 4mph they are pedestrians and go on pavements.
That setup would require some adjustment to our laws, so the current
I promised polling on LTNs. This is a compilation by Cllr Emily Kerr. Since she is a Green and threfore has a view, but says it is all the ones she can find, I invite alternative lists if anyone has any data.
AFAICS the claim that "the silent majority oppose LTNs" is a fiction.
"Thanks to everyone who contributed: updated chart with new reports here.
First 6 on the list are from areas where an LTN has been implemented, others are all more broad / national."
Absolutely. My dad was laying our estates with LTNs (ie modal filters) in the 1960s for the District Council where I live, and I used to walk to school past new ones being created in older housing areas in Nottingham in the mid-1970s.
The mentality of the opponents is baffling to me, whether it's the accidental (or deliberate) untruths pushed by the likes of Susan Hall and Mark Harper, or the hysterics coming from other quarters.
I think that like progressive rebalancing away from motor-vehicle domination they know it will work very well, and are just scraping around for 'reasons' to defend their personal interests, and are cynical concerning the interests of those living in older housing areas.
The thing is there's a right way and a wrong way to proceed, as there is in most things.
If an estate is created not to be a main road for traffic with no through roads then that works with the through road handling the traffic.
If a pre-existing through road is blocked off with no alternative created, then you are just creating problems without any gain. And simply saying "get on a bike, who needs cars anyway" is just wilful blindness.
If an alternative road is built to replace a through road, then the through road becomes an LTN, then that works.
I've said before, this has been done very sensibly near where I live. The road my kids school is off was part of the A-road to Liverpool. It was a 30mph road with houses, shops, schools etc off it but was a major A road with 2 lanes heading to Liverpool and 1 lane heading away from it.
A new purpose-built dual carriageway has just been built nearby to take the traffic heading to Liverpool. This dual carriageway runs at 50mph (I feel it should be 70mph but c'est la vie).
And the old A-road is no longer marked as the A-road anymore and has now been turned to 20mph. One of the lanes to Liverpool has been removed and now instead there is a dedicated cycle path, with a concrete barrier with plants in it separating the road traffic from cyclists.
Everybody wins. People travelling to Liverpool get to go at 50 instead of 30, with a new dual carriageway there's now more space not less for cars, and with dedicated cycle paths etc people travelling locally can do so now safely whether in cars, bikes or pedestrians.
But to do this properly you need to build more roads to replace the through traffic and provide it an alternative route. An LTN that simply says "we're going to reduce traffic" rather than "traffic should go this way instead" is counterproductive.
I. A beautiful landscaped and lit cycling, walking and wheeling path into the town centre was built, which cannot be used by cycles or pedestrians using mobility aids because they are blocked by anti-access barriers which in theory block motobikes (but don't, yet the local Councillors love it and the local police support it as an easy perceived solution to a non-existent problem), so cyclists and wheelers are forced onto the 1m wide shared path of the A38, or the 10k AADT main road, and other local roads.
Snipped to what I wanted to query, I don't see how a barrier can be a block to bicycles but not a block to motorcylces which are wider. Care to explain?
Sure. This is a little lengthy as I'll outline the larger issue. Several vids linked at the end.
The type of motorcycle which is used for racing round the landscape is typically narrower than your standard cycle. That's why I say motobike not motorbike. The only really narrow cycle handlebars are dropped racing bars, and even a standard bike such as a hybrid or a MTB will have handlebars typically 63-65cm side, which have to stop for the type of barriers I mention.
On the path I mentioned I have to wriggle my way through 7-8 barriers (known as A-barriers, which are typically ~50-55cm wide at 1m off the ground and 40cm wide at 1.4m) in a mile, which means stopping every 200m, making the path useless as a way of getting somewhere in a reasonable time (o it is not used). If cycling is to be encouraged it has to be safe, and perceived to be safe (which will not happen on a 10k AADT - Annual Average Daily Traffic) road, and provide a way to get where you want to go in practical time.
And I am not usually mobility impaired. For people on non-standard cycles such as a tricycle or a side-by-tandem it is a total block.
The wider issue is that for pedestrians on mobility scooters or power wheelchairs, or parents with some single or double buggies, it is also often a total block. I noticed this problem when I was unable to take my mum in her wheelchair to the local Doctors or the local park on the network of walking paths. An example of how blind we all are to it is that here these things have been blocking wheelchair access to my local park since 1995; and no one has noticed or fixed it.
There are other types of impassable barriers, such as Chicanes (wiggle woggles), which hinder or block eg mobility scooters and tandems. If such, or the above, are a substantial hindrance to a disabled person, it is an act of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, and compensation and an injunction to remove it can be obtained.
Yet this is nearly 20 years later and the issue is not fixed - we still have Local Authorities installing the things.
It gets really difficult if a disabled pedestrian using a mobility aid goes miles down a path to find an impassable barrier at the other end, and no space to turn the mobility aid around, and quite possibly no capability to get out and pick it up to turn it physically.
Here I have Puffin crossings near my local hospital with the central pedestrian cages so tight that a mobility scooter cannot cross to the hospital at the crossing.
For a measure on the scale of the problem, Sustrans audited their network of paths in 2018 and found 16,000 barriers that need removing or modifying.
Makes TSE and Morris Dancer look like real historians.
"[The aggressive policy] resulted in the national tragedy of 1939, when Poland was left by the Western Allies to be eaten by the German war machine and effectively lost its independence and statehood, which was restored to a great extent thanks to the Soviet Union." - Putin.
Appalled by all the disgustingly healthy and skinny PBers. Spare a thought for the short podgesters amonst us.
Maybe that large steak I had for dinner wasn't the best option.
Thing is. It isn't healthy. I was hovering around a BMI of 20 which is borderline .Then got COVID in February which affected my appetite for a good few months. Hence a medical intervention. Got no wriggle room on my weight. If we had famine I'd go before you.
True enough. I shall pat the old famine buffer zone fondly the next time some human adonis with 0% body fat goes jogging by. I'll be the one laughing when the bombs hit and the food supply is disrupted.
Jeez. If I started exercising...
I don't think you should bemoan your lack of blubber. Muscle would be a far better energy store for you (if that's what you really want) and would have the added advantage of allowing you to lift heavy things.
Makes TSE and Morris Dancer look like real historians.
"[The aggressive policy] resulted in the national tragedy of 1939, when Poland was left by the Western Allies to be eaten by the German war machine and effectively lost its independence and statehood, which was restored to a great extent thanks to the Soviet Union." - Putin.
A few things recently have made me wonder whether Putin might be losing it. Necessary to keep an open mind on the question, though. If he unmistakeably loses it, he won't last five minutes. So I suspect he hasn't quite lost it yet.
Things are complicated over in W Ukraine for sure.
Poland lost territory in 1945 to Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.
One thing I can't stand: people who ask you to move from your booked seat on a plane, or who are already sitting in your booked seat when you arrive. Never used to happen, but seems to be common these days. (Not that I've flown more than about twice in the last 5 years).
An arch-Remainer, who once tried to prosecute Boris Johnson over Brexit, has claimed in a documentary that the former Prime Minister lied about nearly dying from Covid.
The grossly offensive allegation has been made by Marcus Ball in a documentary which claims Mr Johnson’s account of his illness at the beginning of the pandemic was a ‘terrible lie’ designed to manipulate the public.
A trailer for the film, which has yet to be released, features a number of celebrities including Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid presenter, who says in it that ‘the public deserve the truth’.
One thing I can't stand: people who ask you to move from your booked seat on a plane, or who are already sitting in your booked seat when you arrive. Never used to happen, but seems to be common these days. (Not that I've flown more than about twice in the last 5 years).
I was badgered fairly forcefully by someone to change seats on Ryanair so they could sit together with their spouse. An option which was available to them for a few pounds extra at the time of booking.
Where these people get the emotional energy for constant public confrontations I've never understood.
An arch-Remainer, who once tried to prosecute Boris Johnson over Brexit, has claimed in a documentary that the former Prime Minister lied about nearly dying from Covid.
The grossly offensive allegation has been made by Marcus Ball in a documentary which claims Mr Johnson’s account of his illness at the beginning of the pandemic was a ‘terrible lie’ designed to manipulate the public.
A trailer for the film, which has yet to be released, features a number of celebrities including Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid presenter, who says in it that ‘the public deserve the truth’.
Will Hutton @williamnhutton · 1h It maybe too late to change the narrative now but an important reason the Tory vote in Uxbridge held up was the strength of its British Indian community’s vote - very proud of and loyal to Rishi Sunak. Air quality and climate change still matter profoundly - we must hold the line
Gove - in Telegraph - disowns his own department's policy on landlords and energy and green issues.
Lining up to be kingmaker in the post election reset for Tories?
Gove would make a decent short-term opposition leader. Not tremendously electable, but on top of the facts and plausible. The "forensic" keir was supposed to be.
Gonna annoy other guys and gals in their mid 50's now... Am 5 10 1m 80 tall. My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos. So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it. Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
Also 1m 80 tall, and working in the other direction. I have been recently diagnosed with high blood pressure, so trying to get down from my 91 kg. Down to 89 kg so far, and not too bad so far. 80 kg would be good.
Gove - in Telegraph - disowns his own department's policy on landlords and energy and green issues.
Lining up to be kingmaker in the post election reset for Tories?
Gove would make a decent short-term opposition leader. Not tremendously electable, but on top of the facts and plausible. The "forensic" keir was supposed to be.
Agree.
But he wont stand a chance as the swivel eyed, raging into their gins see a chance to elect proper red meat as opposition leader.
An arch-Remainer, who once tried to prosecute Boris Johnson over Brexit, has claimed in a documentary that the former Prime Minister lied about nearly dying from Covid.
The grossly offensive allegation has been made by Marcus Ball in a documentary which claims Mr Johnson’s account of his illness at the beginning of the pandemic was a ‘terrible lie’ designed to manipulate the public.
A trailer for the film, which has yet to be released, features a number of celebrities including Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid presenter, who says in it that ‘the public deserve the truth’.
Terrible that conspiracy theories seem to be so easy to spread these days. I wonder what we can do about it.
An arch-Remainer, who once tried to prosecute Boris Johnson over Brexit, has claimed in a documentary that the former Prime Minister lied about nearly dying from Covid.
The grossly offensive allegation has been made by Marcus Ball in a documentary which claims Mr Johnson’s account of his illness at the beginning of the pandemic was a ‘terrible lie’ designed to manipulate the public.
A trailer for the film, which has yet to be released, features a number of celebrities including Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid presenter, who says in it that ‘the public deserve the truth’.
Terrible that conspiracy theories seem to be so easy to spread these days. I wonder what we can do about it.
Stopping quoting from "Unherd" would be a good start...
[ducks]
(Speaking seriously, I don't know. We look for info on the internet using search engines, the information we are given depends on which source gives that search engine most profit, we choose those that best reflect our prejudices, believe they are true even if it's insane, talk to those who share those beliefs, and the feedback loop goes up and up and up.
Makes TSE and Morris Dancer look like real historians.
"[The aggressive policy] resulted in the national tragedy of 1939, when Poland was left by the Western Allies to be eaten by the German war machine and effectively lost its independence and statehood, which was restored to a great extent thanks to the Soviet Union." - Putin.
A few things recently have made me wonder whether Putin might be losing it. Necessary to keep an open mind on the question, though. If he unmistakeably loses it, he won't last five minutes. So I suspect he hasn't quite lost it yet.
Things are complicated over in W Ukraine for sure.
Poland lost territory in 1945 to Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.
Note that Poland supported the Lithuanian post-Soviet claims to statehood over those of ethnic Poles on Lithuanian territory - at a time when a large area of Lithuania contiguous with Poland, including Vilnius, was majority ethnic Polish. Just as they supported Belarus statehood.
During tonight’s missile attack, Russia hit and partially destroyed the Transfiguration Orthodox Cathedral in Odesa
One of the most beautiful churches in the city, it was built in 1794, then blown up by Stalin in 1936, and rebuilt during Independent Ukraine. Residential houses were also damaged and there are wounded https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1682929013101154305
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
If your weight in st/lb has gone down, it has likely gone down in kg, too. Simple, really.
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
If your weight in st/lb has gone down, it has likely gone down in kg, too. Simple, really.
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
If your weight in st/lb has gone down, it has likely gone down in kg, too. Simple, really.
More seriously is most people dont quote their weight in Stones and Pounds. They usually quote it to the nearest half a stone. Which hides a lot.
Good grief. I’ve just seen the London weather forecast
I think I’d rather be under drone attack in Odesa
What's the weather like today in Odessa? And what colour is the boathouse in Hereford?
In Odessa, Washington? Temp 84F, zero % rainfall chance, humidity 23%, wind 10 mph
In Odessa, Ukraine = temp 77F, 3% chance of rainfall, humidity 79%, wind 9 mph
As for Heerford boathouse, dingy
Why are you still using Fahrenheit???
Because otherwise I (and we) would NOT have a clue how hot (or not) it is!!!
And WHY are YOU still weighing yourself in rocks, or whatever it is?
It makes more sense to say 10 stones than 140 pounds.
I don't agree at all.
Saying someone has changed from 135 lbs to 145 lbs means quite clearly a 10lb change. It is clean and simple to understand.
Stones don't add anything useful.
A person's weight varies by several pounds over the course of a day, and so to measure a person's weight in pounds is to be meaninglessly precise. A stone is the right sort of precision for a person's weight, so that if a person's weight changes by a stone you can be confident that it is a real change in weight, and from anecdote it's the same sort of scale of change that you will notice in terms of how well clothes continue to fit.
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
I weigh myself in kilos.
Because my wife has no concept of pounds or stones, and gets really annoyed if I change the setting on the scales and then don’t change it back.
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
I weigh myself in kilos.
Because my wife has no concept of pounds or stones, and gets really annoyed if I change the setting on the scales and then don’t change it back.
As discussed before I am metric on practically everything except where I have no choice eg I clearly don't go into a pub and order 0.5 litre of beer or convert the speed limits on roads rather than deal with what is presented to me. If speed limits did change to metric that would be preferable, but I don't care, but I do like some traditions so the idea of keeping a pint of beer appeals.
The only exception is my height. As @Penddu2 implied, because imperial was in common use when I stopped growing I know my height in imperial but not metric.
I weigh myself in kg - it gives a meaningful measure where I can see changes. I have no idea what it is in stone, or why anyone uses such an archaic measure. I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg. The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
I weigh myself in kilos.
Because my wife has no concept of pounds or stones, and gets really annoyed if I change the setting on the scales and then don’t change it back.
As discussed before I am metric on practically everything except where I have no choice eg I clearly don't go into a pub and order 0.5 litre of beer or convert the speed limits on roads rather than deal with what is presented to me. If speed limits did change to metric that would be preferable, but I don't care, but I do like some traditions so the idea of keeping a pint of beer appeals.
The only exception is my height. As @Penddu2 implied, because imperial was in common use when I stopped growing I know my height in imperial but not metric.
I thought I would find the transition from miles to kilometres more annoying when moving to Ireland, but I find that I really like that our car has a range > 1000 distance units.
Comments
Many but not all second homes are bought on unearned wealth.
I know based on what you have posted here that you had a hugely successful career and that you have a second property presumably bought on the back of that successful career. And that is fine well done to you. I could afford to buy a (small) second property in Southwold.
So this is not aimed at you personally.
But the acquisition of second and subsequent properties does make it far more difficult for locals to get on the property ladder as it pushes prices up hence my approach on taxation.
I am glad you agree with my approach to IHT. As Meatloaf nearly said '1 out of 2 ain't bad' 👍
I think the rational principle is for good quality infrastructure which becomes the default for cycles, e-scooters and large mobility scooters - all of which needs to be as free as possible from motor vehicles. Large mobility scooters at present are forced onto the road when doing more then 4mph; when doing 4mph they are pedestrians and go on pavements.
That setup would require some adjustment to our laws, so the current
As I see it, I think there is a difference between urban and rural here, and the data in cities does not justify building more roads.
In London the experience is that traffic in LTNs plummets by approx half (as you would expect), and that the traffic on boundary roads stays the same on average across a sample of LTNs with some above average and some below on a spectrum.
So careful detailed design is justified, but not universal increased capacity. Traffic evaporation happens in practice in LTNs, and for half the time on boundary roads too - which is great.
I'll certainly give you that the situation varies for out-of-city settings.
The phenomenon of induced traffic growth and induced congestion is what happens when more roads are built, as is the phenomenon of reduced traffic as less capacity is provided and other modes become relatively more attractive, which is where we are going, in cities and I think in more small town and rural settings.
In my locality the old A38 through the town is now the B6023, still carrying 10k AADT, The new A38 bypass built in the 1990s has an AADT number of about 25k. A beautiful landscaped and lit cycling, walking and wheeling path into the town centre was built, which cannot be used by cycles or pedestrians using mobility aids because they are blocked by anti-access barriers which in theory block motobikes (but don't, yet the local Councillors love it and the local police support it as an easy perceived solution to a non-existent problem), so cyclists and wheelers are forced onto the 1m wide shared path of the A38, or the 10k AADT main road, and other local roads. The A38 used to be national limit, but after about 10 pedestrians and cyclists and pedestrians were killed by drivers on it, average speed cameras were installed.
Pure idiocy and a perfect illustration of why UK road policy is a total mess.
If you are cherry picking examples you are losing.
"You've lost 1kg!"
"You've gained 3lb!"
"Wut?"
My vineyard weather station has rainfall accumulations for May, June and July this year of 21, 23 and 69mm. Not monsoonal.
The units I can't work with are Usonian recipes measured in "cups".
https://thecritic.co.uk/why-truss-was-right/
Two and a quarter pounds of ham
Weighs about a kilogram
Which works much better as a benchmark than 154 pounds = 70 kg
'Hugely' I think might be somewhat of an exaggeration to put it mildly. Comfortably off and careful with money might be a better description.
I actually agree with you on the issue with 2nd homes. Not sure how you deal with it without becoming a nanny state though. I don't want to go down the line of banning stuff so CGT and IHT seem the obvious options.
Am 5 10 1m 80 tall.
My doctor has given me strict orders to try to reach a weight of 10 stones. 140 pounds. 64 kilos.
So. Am furiously eating chips and cream in an effort to attain it.
Have put on three pounds in a month. But feel bloated and lethargic. Still someway short of my target.
We can do organ transplants.
A Nobel Prize nailed on for the person who invents weight transplants.
The issue is supply vs demand. Taxing second home ownership doesn’t make any meaningful difference except in one or two super popular tourist hotspots. Just build loads more houses.
But from the opposite direction.
For body weight etc, since I have now had type I Diabetes for 20+ years, I have become necessarily comfortable around formulae for BMI and all sorts of diet related stuff from packets, insulin ratios vs blood glucose level predictions from both ends, and grams of carb. And carbohydrate estimation and bg level consequences on the fly in restaurants and when cooking, and when weighing ingredients.
Having grown up watching Countdown Numbers Games is a real benefit for diabetics !
"[The aggressive policy] resulted in the national tragedy of 1939, when Poland was left by the Western Allies to be eaten by the German war machine and effectively lost its independence and statehood, which was restored to a great extent thanks to the Soviet Union." - Putin.
Has he really never heard of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact?
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1682364918337601538
Maybe that large steak I had for dinner wasn't the best option.
(Here are some prices for the curious: https://www.bishs.com/blog/rv-cost/ )
It isn't healthy.
I was hovering around a BMI of 20 which is borderline .Then got COVID in February which affected my appetite for a good few months.
Hence a medical intervention.
Got no wriggle room on my weight. If we had famine I'd go before you.
And you could eat my corpse.
Not that there'd be much on it.
Mostly genetics, put partly from working on a farm.
If I started exercising...
https://www.southhams.gov.uk/article/9552/District-Council-votes-to-adopt-100-Council-Tax-Premium-on-Second-Homes
Seems Putin plans to destroy the city.”
https://twitter.com/jayinkyiv/status/1682887836503011329?s=61&t=GGp3Vs1t1kTWDiyA-odnZg
SeanT gaped in amazement; he was completely and utterly taken aback by the presence of the black-cloaked creature. The Liposuction Monster's eyes met SeanT's, and his mouth curled upwards in a malicious grin.
"Ah, my boy, we meet again!" the Lipo-Suction Monster exclaimed in his comically heavy Transylvanian accent. "Er, I see you still haven't slimmed down yet. Why not?" He leant across the desk as he spoke the last two words.
"Um, I tried, Lipo! Honest, I tried!" SeanT answered, sensing what was going to happen next wouldn't entirely be to his advantage.
"Trying is not good enough!" roared the Lipo-Suction Monster. And he leapt out from the chair, and over the desk, grabbing SeanT in the process, and throwing him onto the nearby couch. Laughing maniacally, the Monster returned to the desk, opened one of the drawers and produced a massive hack-saw!
"No! Please, Lipo! Please, no!" SeanT screamed.
The monster went back to his victim, who was quivering with fear, resigned to his fate. SeanT screamed as the evil creature proceeded to chop off his pseudo-feminine moobs!
Mutilated and bleeding profusely, he begged for mercy, but the Liposuction Monster was adamant to teach him a lesson. He did something which even SeanT swore was just a myth. He opened his mouth and extended his twelve-inch long proboscis, and - once again giggling dementedly - punctured the poor sod's blubbery abdominal region with it.
And sucked hard!
SeanT squealed in agony as he felt the monster suck up all of his precious fat, but the squeals soon faded away as within minutes he was quite literally nothing but a sack of skin and bone, fat-less, yes, but unfortunately life-less too....
Michael Weiss
@michaeldweiss
·
8h
"[Ukraine] continue to demolish on average about 25 artillery pieces a day. This is beginning to have some effect."
Michael Weiss
@michaeldweiss
·
8h
"In southern Ukraine in October the weather for active combat is still perfectly okay. There is still time."
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1682770624903512064
The type of motorcycle which is used for racing round the landscape is typically narrower than your standard cycle. That's why I say motobike not motorbike. The only really narrow cycle handlebars are dropped racing bars, and even a standard bike such as a hybrid or a MTB will have handlebars typically 63-65cm side, which have to stop for the type of barriers I mention.
On the path I mentioned I have to wriggle my way through 7-8 barriers (known as A-barriers, which are typically ~50-55cm wide at 1m off the ground and 40cm wide at 1.4m) in a mile, which means stopping every 200m, making the path useless as a way of getting somewhere in a reasonable time (o it is not used). If cycling is to be encouraged it has to be safe, and perceived to be safe (which will not happen on a 10k AADT - Annual Average Daily Traffic) road, and provide a way to get where you want to go in practical time.
And I am not usually mobility impaired. For people on non-standard cycles such as a tricycle or a side-by-tandem it is a total block.
The wider issue is that for pedestrians on mobility scooters or power wheelchairs, or parents with some single or double buggies, it is also often a total block. I noticed this problem when I was unable to take my mum in her wheelchair to the local Doctors or the local park on the network of walking paths. An example of how blind we all are to it is that here these things have been blocking wheelchair access to my local park since 1995; and no one has noticed or fixed it.
There are other types of impassable barriers, such as Chicanes (wiggle woggles), which hinder or block eg mobility scooters and tandems. If such, or the above, are a substantial hindrance to a disabled person, it is an act of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, and compensation and an injunction to remove it can be obtained.
Yet this is nearly 20 years later and the issue is not fixed - we still have Local Authorities installing the things.
It gets really difficult if a disabled pedestrian using a mobility aid goes miles down a path to find an impassable barrier at the other end, and no space to turn the mobility aid around, and quite possibly no capability to get out and pick it up to turn it physically.
Here I have Puffin crossings near my local hospital with the central pedestrian cages so tight that a mobility scooter cannot cross to the hospital at the crossing.
For a measure on the scale of the problem, Sustrans audited their network of paths in 2018 and found 16,000 barriers that need removing or modifying.
Vids:
Motorbikes through an A-barrier, which is supposed t keep then out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJmvtMaLDyo
Mobility scooter hindered by chicane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaHeFgyo7jc
Sustrans interview with people using mobility aids / non-standard cycles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hy7PTqcgQA&t=2s
Things are complicated over in W Ukraine for sure.
Poland lost territory in 1945 to Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12327409/Gary-Lineker-films-lies-Boris-Covid-BBC-distance-documentary-smear-PM-death.html
An arch-Remainer, who once tried to prosecute Boris Johnson over Brexit, has claimed in a documentary that the former Prime Minister lied about nearly dying from Covid.
The grossly offensive allegation has been made by Marcus Ball in a documentary which claims Mr Johnson’s account of his illness at the beginning of the pandemic was a ‘terrible lie’ designed to manipulate the public.
A trailer for the film, which has yet to be released, features a number of celebrities including Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid presenter, who says in it that ‘the public deserve the truth’.
Where these people get the emotional energy for constant public confrontations I've never understood.
Will Hutton
@williamnhutton
·
1h
It maybe too late to change the narrative now but an important reason the Tory vote in Uxbridge held up was the strength of its British Indian community’s vote - very proud of and loyal to Rishi Sunak. Air quality and climate change still matter profoundly - we must hold the line
Lining up to be kingmaker in the post election reset for Tories?
But he wont stand a chance as the swivel eyed, raging into their gins see a chance to elect proper red meat as opposition leader.
[ducks]
(Speaking seriously, I don't know. We look for info on the internet using search engines, the information we are given depends on which source gives that search engine most profit, we choose those that best reflect our prejudices, believe they are true even if it's insane, talk to those who share those beliefs, and the feedback loop goes up and up and up.
We call this "doing the research"
When you work out how to stop it, let me know)
Just as they supported Belarus statehood.
One of the most beautiful churches in the city, it was built in 1794, then blown up by Stalin in 1936, and rebuilt during Independent Ukraine.
Residential houses were also damaged and there are wounded
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1682929013101154305
I know my height in both feet/inches and in m/cm. Which does not change. So I dont need to monitor it. It just is.
The only reason to use stone is if you are a weight denier. Saying vaguely that you weigh 12 stone means you can easily hide +/- 0.5 stone which means +/- 3kg.
The medical term for this is 'you lying fat b@stard'.
Because my wife has no concept of pounds or stones, and gets really annoyed if I change the setting on the scales and then don’t change it back.
The only exception is my height. As @Penddu2 implied, because imperial was in common use when I stopped growing I know my height in imperial but not metric.