Isn't the Electoral College system bizarre and heavily flawed. If one person wins the most national votes then they should be President. System is worse than ours.
Re gambling reform: Focus was on reducing harm of online slots and casino games and the torrent of advertising of them. But also the establishment of an ombudsman for aggrieved punters.
I am not going to make a prediction. Not great at them anyway. I am hoping Harris wins. Not because she is great, she isn't. She's pretty mediocre and a poor media performer but has benefited from a friendly press and Trump combusting.
She has to be better than Trump and his crazy trade tariffs which would be a disaster.
How useful is net favourability as an election guide in the States? Looks like Harris will soon crossover into net favourable when some earlier polling starts to drop out of the models...
I couldn't work out whether it was the Telegraph going off on one or Alanbrooke and it turned out to be a mixture of the two.
Nothing to see .....;move on
Oh Roger even the BBC said the Junior Doctore will be back for more.
Regrettably there will be a lot more news on Labour incompetence over the next 5 years and you cant keep blaming the messengers.
Ed Miliband - theres a fk up on two legs who hasnt a clue what he is doing.
Not sure about the Ed Miliband thing - offshore wind development has 82% approval rating, including 82% among Tories and 73% among Reform voters.
The more they get Miliband on the news talking about the successful auctions, the better.
Offshore wind is not in anyone's back yard, though.
Onshore wind, on the other hand, I think the previous government was right to be cautious about.
Latest plan in this part of the world is for a large area of the Pennines north of Calderdale to be turned into a monster wind development. It is the nearest bit of open land for quite a large population and part of a peat restoration project. Not surprisingly it is somewhat controversial but if Ed decides that we must suffer this for the net zero project, it will no doubt get built.
As if the peat restoration couldn't take place _without_ building lots of roads and 200m turbines...
If the turbine project doesn't take place then the land continues I assume to be used as a grouse shoot - which in terms of biodiversity and carbon is pretty much bottom of the pile for that sort of peat land I think. I'd be inclined to be in favour of the project though I don't know too much about it other than the blurb on the site.
"£2.5m annual Community Benefit Fund paid to Calderdale Council to help relieve fuel poverty for 30 years.." will possible swing it.
That works out at around £8 per annum, per kW of capacity.
Yes, it might. I know the council people involved in the peat restoration though, and they are definitely not in favour.
They'll probably get ignored though.
Heavily managed grouse moors in these parts will eventually be killed off, I think, without having to spoil them with anything else. There are sites not far from Calderdale that have had the sheep and shooters thrown off and the number of species that have turned up is amazing. The old fashioned shoots (I could mention a couple of estates here, but probably best not) that still exist and do illegal or antisocial things are being tolerated less and less, particularly when their actions lead to flooding and peat loss. A bit more money for land restoration is all it would take for them to go.
With such a large surrounding population and a seemingly greater demand for wild(ish) spaces, it would do a lot of good for the area to keep it open, restore the bog where possible, and not turn it into a power station.
I want to see 500m turbines on Dogger Bank instead.
The arrays visible from the East Yorkshire coast are already impressive.
This is where things get tricky. The really valuable bits of the UK in terms of biodiversity tend to be wetlands and our coastal areas. The stunning countryside in the Shires and glorious upland areas in the north - not so much.
In simple terms, it's the difference between a SSSI and a AONB, or a bog standard Georgian country house or a brutalist tower block in South London. Which of the two do you want to protect?
Peat uplands are massively important ecologically, and if you're interested in the environment, as a massive carbon sink. Windfarms in peat areas have many problems; you need massive haul roads zigzagging up the hillsides to get the heavy and large turbines up there, roads across the top dug deep to hold the load, concrete bases for the turbines, trenches for cables, etc, etc.
People currently complain about the shallow tracks used by estates to get onto the tops; these windfarms devastate peat uplands.
(I am not a BANANA; I have zero problem with my local windfarm, on an old airfield.)
Isn't the Electoral College system bizarre and heavily flawed. If one person wins the most national votes then they should be President. System is worse than ours.
I think that having an election for an individual post be so highly consequential is a more serious problem than how you elect that individual.
In a Parliamentary system victories by one side of the other can vary in strength depending on how strongly decided the electorate is, which means that a divided electorate will produce a government with less power to override the minority and enact radical change.
In a Presidency the outcome is binary and so you can have very large changes consequent on very fine margins.
Landlords face £90,000 capital gains tax bills under a Labour shake-up of the country’s tax system, new analysis shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out aligning capital gains tax with income tax, which would see more of property owners’ house price gains hoovered up by the Treasury.
If the taxes were aligned, landlords looking to sell properties they bought before 2005 would have to fork out between £87,000 and £90,000.
This is a 67pc increase on the current £54,000 average that those selling their property after 20 years of ownership have to pay to cover the levy, according to estate agent Hamptons.
A Treasury spokesman said Ms Reeves “has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax” to address the “£22bn black hole” in public finances.
There have 500k+ HMOs in England (2021 census numbers where people happened to be at the time), and unlawful (ie in your words 'impromptu') and deliberately illegal ones on top, which each have multiple households in them.
Of the 500k counted, ~100k are large HMOs (6 people or more) and the rest are small HMOs ("3 or more people in 2 or more households").
When the small HMOs go into the owner occupied sector, they overwhelmingly become single household properties.
That creates upward pressure on rents as there is demand for extra households to be occupied within a proportionally reduced stock of dwellings.
It's a fair point, but I think you would want to weight it by the periods rental properties are empty between tenancies and do some sort of time series analysis, particularly as couples fill flats with kids.
Must be a drop in the ocean compared with general under-occupancy of housing for owner occupiers though. Abolish stamp duty to encourage downsizing etc etc
That will scarcely touch the sides. As a country we have an extremely low under-occupancy and vacancy rate. The market is too tight and has been for decades. The only thing that will change it long term is more new houses.
France has 8 million more homes than we do, and higher rates of over-occupancy.
France has vast amounts of extremely affordable (and nice) property everywhere outside inner Paris. Enough that loads of people have second homes without needing to be richer than Croesus. It would be wonderful to have a property market like France.
France also has nearly 3 times as much land as we do, and a system of property / tenancy law that is weirdly outdated in many respects.
I can tell you from personal experience it’s much easier to buy a house in France than here, and a lot easier to be a tenant than a landlord. What it’s not is a market where you can make money by sitting on property and waiting for the market to rise. Housing in France is for living in, not speculation or investment.
Yes their Napoleonic inheritance laws are bizarre (I am currently in the process of transferring part ownership of a real estate company to my wife and need a signed letter from my sister permitting it) but everything else works in the interest of the occupier.
As for under supply in cities and oversupply elsewhere, yes inner Paris is expensive but the second and third tier cities are very affordable and generally much more attractive than their UK equivalents. There is far less regional inequality than here. And prices drop off rapidly outside Paris so it’s much easier to buy property in commutable distance.
They’re lucky as a country to have an excellent and over-supplied housing stock. It’s not so much that the landmass is bigger, it’s that the French population was already very high - and dispersed across the country - in the pre-industrial age. We caught up later. Now we need to build to get into better balance.
How useful is net favourability as an election guide in the States? Looks like Harris will soon crossover into net favourable when some earlier polling starts to drop out of the models...
I think favourability is important, but it's worth noting that the margin between Harris and Trump on that metric is similar to the margin between Clinton and Trump in 2016. So there's more going on.
I couldn't work out whether it was the Telegraph going off on one or Alanbrooke and it turned out to be a mixture of the two.
Nothing to see .....;move on
Oh Roger even the BBC said the Junior Doctore will be back for more.
Regrettably there will be a lot more news on Labour incompetence over the next 5 years and you cant keep blaming the messengers.
Ed Miliband - theres a fk up on two legs who hasnt a clue what he is doing.
Not sure about the Ed Miliband thing - offshore wind development has 82% approval rating, including 82% among Tories and 73% among Reform voters.
The more they get Miliband on the news talking about the successful auctions, the better.
Offshore wind is not in anyone's back yard, though.
Onshore wind, on the other hand, I think the previous government was right to be cautious about.
Latest plan in this part of the world is for a large area of the Pennines north of Calderdale to be turned into a monster wind development. It is the nearest bit of open land for quite a large population and part of a peat restoration project. Not surprisingly it is somewhat controversial but if Ed decides that we must suffer this for the net zero project, it will no doubt get built.
As if the peat restoration couldn't take place _without_ building lots of roads and 200m turbines...
If the turbine project doesn't take place then the land continues I assume to be used as a grouse shoot - which in terms of biodiversity and carbon is pretty much bottom of the pile for that sort of peat land I think. I'd be inclined to be in favour of the project though I don't know too much about it other than the blurb on the site.
"£2.5m annual Community Benefit Fund paid to Calderdale Council to help relieve fuel poverty for 30 years.." will possible swing it.
That works out at around £8 per annum, per kW of capacity.
Yes, it might. I know the council people involved in the peat restoration though, and they are definitely not in favour.
They'll probably get ignored though.
Heavily managed grouse moors in these parts will eventually be killed off, I think, without having to spoil them with anything else. There are sites not far from Calderdale that have had the sheep and shooters thrown off and the number of species that have turned up is amazing. The old fashioned shoots (I could mention a couple of estates here, but probably best not) that still exist and do illegal or antisocial things are being tolerated less and less, particularly when their actions lead to flooding and peat loss. A bit more money for land restoration is all it would take for them to go.
With such a large surrounding population and a seemingly greater demand for wild(ish) spaces, it would do a lot of good for the area to keep it open, restore the bog where possible, and not turn it into a power station.
I want to see 500m turbines on Dogger Bank instead.
The arrays visible from the East Yorkshire coast are already impressive.
This is where things get tricky. The really valuable bits of the UK in terms of biodiversity tend to be wetlands and our coastal areas. The stunning countryside in the Shires and glorious upland areas in the north - not so much.
In simple terms, it's the difference between a SSSI and a AONB, or a bog standard Georgian country house or a brutalist tower block in South London. Which of the two do you want to protect?
Peat uplands are massively important ecologically, and if you're interested in the environment, as a massive carbon sink. Windfarms in peat areas have many problems; you need massive haul roads zigzagging up the hillsides to get the heavy and large turbines up there, roads across the top dug deep to hold the load, concrete bases for the turbines, trenches for cables, etc, etc.
People currently complain about the shallow tracks used by estates to get onto the tops; these windfarms devastate peat uplands.
(I am not a BANANA; I have zero problem with my local windfarm, on an old airfield.)
Yes, sorry, I entirely agree. I was trying to make exactly that point.
I couldn't work out whether it was the Telegraph going off on one or Alanbrooke and it turned out to be a mixture of the two.
Nothing to see .....;move on
Oh Roger even the BBC said the Junior Doctore will be back for more.
Regrettably there will be a lot more news on Labour incompetence over the next 5 years and you cant keep blaming the messengers.
Ed Miliband - theres a fk up on two legs who hasnt a clue what he is doing.
Not sure about the Ed Miliband thing - offshore wind development has 82% approval rating, including 82% among Tories and 73% among Reform voters.
The more they get Miliband on the news talking about the successful auctions, the better.
Offshore wind is not in anyone's back yard, though.
Onshore wind, on the other hand, I think the previous government was right to be cautious about.
Latest plan in this part of the world is for a large area of the Pennines north of Calderdale to be turned into a monster wind development. It is the nearest bit of open land for quite a large population and part of a peat restoration project. Not surprisingly it is somewhat controversial but if Ed decides that we must suffer this for the net zero project, it will no doubt get built.
As if the peat restoration couldn't take place _without_ building lots of roads and 200m turbines...
If the turbine project doesn't take place then the land continues I assume to be used as a grouse shoot - which in terms of biodiversity and carbon is pretty much bottom of the pile for that sort of peat land I think. I'd be inclined to be in favour of the project though I don't know too much about it other than the blurb on the site.
"£2.5m annual Community Benefit Fund paid to Calderdale Council to help relieve fuel poverty for 30 years.." will possible swing it.
That works out at around £8 per annum, per kW of capacity.
Yes, it might. I know the council people involved in the peat restoration though, and they are definitely not in favour.
They'll probably get ignored though.
Heavily managed grouse moors in these parts will eventually be killed off, I think, without having to spoil them with anything else. There are sites not far from Calderdale that have had the sheep and shooters thrown off and the number of species that have turned up is amazing. The old fashioned shoots (I could mention a couple of estates here, but probably best not) that still exist and do illegal or antisocial things are being tolerated less and less, particularly when their actions lead to flooding and peat loss. A bit more money for land restoration is all it would take for them to go.
With such a large surrounding population and a seemingly greater demand for wild(ish) spaces, it would do a lot of good for the area to keep it open, restore the bog where possible, and not turn it into a power station.
I want to see 500m turbines on Dogger Bank instead.
The arrays visible from the East Yorkshire coast are already impressive.
This is where things get tricky. The really valuable bits of the UK in terms of biodiversity tend to be wetlands and our coastal areas. The stunning countryside in the Shires and glorious upland areas in the north - not so much.
In simple terms, it's the difference between a SSSI and a AONB, or a bog standard Georgian country house or a brutalist tower block in South London. Which of the two do you want to protect?
The tower block because it's probably the last one left...
Landlords face £90,000 capital gains tax bills under a Labour shake-up of the country’s tax system, new analysis shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out aligning capital gains tax with income tax, which would see more of property owners’ house price gains hoovered up by the Treasury.
If the taxes were aligned, landlords looking to sell properties they bought before 2005 would have to fork out between £87,000 and £90,000.
This is a 67pc increase on the current £54,000 average that those selling their property after 20 years of ownership have to pay to cover the levy, according to estate agent Hamptons.
A Treasury spokesman said Ms Reeves “has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax” to address the “£22bn black hole” in public finances.
Council tax: how likely is it that Labour would abolish the single person discount? This would put their council tax bills up by a third overnight. Can't see it myself. Where has this rumour come from?
Treasury sounding out ideas and popularity?
The idea has come from the LGA Labour councillor who chairs it as a recommendation to the government. It has legs.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Landlords face £90,000 capital gains tax bills under a Labour shake-up of the country’s tax system, new analysis shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out aligning capital gains tax with income tax, which would see more of property owners’ house price gains hoovered up by the Treasury.
If the taxes were aligned, landlords looking to sell properties they bought before 2005 would have to fork out between £87,000 and £90,000.
This is a 67pc increase on the current £54,000 average that those selling their property after 20 years of ownership have to pay to cover the levy, according to estate agent Hamptons.
A Treasury spokesman said Ms Reeves “has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax” to address the “£22bn black hole” in public finances.
Landlords face £90,000 capital gains tax bills under a Labour shake-up of the country’s tax system, new analysis shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out aligning capital gains tax with income tax, which would see more of property owners’ house price gains hoovered up by the Treasury.
If the taxes were aligned, landlords looking to sell properties they bought before 2005 would have to fork out between £87,000 and £90,000.
This is a 67pc increase on the current £54,000 average that those selling their property after 20 years of ownership have to pay to cover the levy, according to estate agent Hamptons.
A Treasury spokesman said Ms Reeves “has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax” to address the “£22bn black hole” in public finances.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
I like it when people report things that just work (tm).
Things do, most of the time, yet we mostly all hear about when things go wrong.
Sarah Montague very critical of the LDs chasing Tory seats. Taking the p*** out of sandal wearing LDs and trying to get the delegates to criticise Starmer's wife's £5000 clothing donation. They weren't as critical as one would have expected.
Tim Davey defending his handling of the Huw Edwards scandal as Jermaine Jenas's feet didn't touch the ground.
And what did Jenas actually do?
I was being mischievous. It must have appeared to the BBC glitterati that whatever it was it must have been so much worse than the threshold required for sacking other national treasures.
Did we all know that the currently under fire Jewish Chronicle (from its own contributors like Baddiel and several others) is apparently run by Mrs May fanboi, BBC favourite and least well known BeeGee, Robbie Gibb?
Russia doing its own bit of drone warfare innovation.
Video of a Russian mothership UAV that carries two FPVs. Serhii Flash says he thinks Russia used one recently, and its FPVs hit targets 40km from the front line. https://x.com/RALee85/status/1835837837519814834
Landlords face £90,000 capital gains tax bills under a Labour shake-up of the country’s tax system, new analysis shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out aligning capital gains tax with income tax, which would see more of property owners’ house price gains hoovered up by the Treasury.
If the taxes were aligned, landlords looking to sell properties they bought before 2005 would have to fork out between £87,000 and £90,000.
This is a 67pc increase on the current £54,000 average that those selling their property after 20 years of ownership have to pay to cover the levy, according to estate agent Hamptons.
A Treasury spokesman said Ms Reeves “has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax” to address the “£22bn black hole” in public finances.
I wonder what percentage of working-class people voted LD at the election. Probably around 5%. In the 1980s it would have been more like 15% (for the Lib/SDP Alliance).
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
Wouldn't bet on that if they know the pin code.
But reality is this card is the one I travel with as I need it for lounge access and fast track at airports.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
I couldn't work out whether it was the Telegraph going off on one or Alanbrooke and it turned out to be a mixture of the two.
Nothing to see .....;move on
Oh Roger even the BBC said the Junior Doctore will be back for more.
Regrettably there will be a lot more news on Labour incompetence over the next 5 years and you cant keep blaming the messengers.
Ed Miliband - theres a fk up on two legs who hasnt a clue what he is doing.
Not sure about the Ed Miliband thing - offshore wind development has 82% approval rating, including 82% among Tories and 73% among Reform voters.
The more they get Miliband on the news talking about the successful auctions, the better.
Offshore wind is not in anyone's back yard, though.
Onshore wind, on the other hand, I think the previous government was right to be cautious about.
Latest plan in this part of the world is for a large area of the Pennines north of Calderdale to be turned into a monster wind development. It is the nearest bit of open land for quite a large population and part of a peat restoration project. Not surprisingly it is somewhat controversial but if Ed decides that we must suffer this for the net zero project, it will no doubt get built.
As if the peat restoration couldn't take place _without_ building lots of roads and 200m turbines...
If the turbine project doesn't take place then the land continues I assume to be used as a grouse shoot - which in terms of biodiversity and carbon is pretty much bottom of the pile for that sort of peat land I think. I'd be inclined to be in favour of the project though I don't know too much about it other than the blurb on the site.
"£2.5m annual Community Benefit Fund paid to Calderdale Council to help relieve fuel poverty for 30 years.." will possible swing it.
That works out at around £8 per annum, per kW of capacity.
Yes, it might. I know the council people involved in the peat restoration though, and they are definitely not in favour.
They'll probably get ignored though.
Heavily managed grouse moors in these parts will eventually be killed off, I think, without having to spoil them with anything else. There are sites not far from Calderdale that have had the sheep and shooters thrown off and the number of species that have turned up is amazing. The old fashioned shoots (I could mention a couple of estates here, but probably best not) that still exist and do illegal or antisocial things are being tolerated less and less, particularly when their actions lead to flooding and peat loss. A bit more money for land restoration is all it would take for them to go.
With such a large surrounding population and a seemingly greater demand for wild(ish) spaces, it would do a lot of good for the area to keep it open, restore the bog where possible, and not turn it into a power station.
I want to see 500m turbines on Dogger Bank instead.
The arrays visible from the East Yorkshire coast are already impressive.
This is where things get tricky. The really valuable bits of the UK in terms of biodiversity tend to be wetlands and our coastal areas. The stunning countryside in the Shires and glorious upland areas in the north - not so much.
In simple terms, it's the difference between a SSSI and a AONB, or a bog standard Georgian country house or a brutalist tower block in South London. Which of the two do you want to protect?
The tower block because it's probably the last one left...
Yes I will be in a small minority here...
We need to keep a few if only to remind us not to build any more.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
Wouldn't bet on that if they know the pin code.
But reality is this card is the one I travel with as I need it for lounge access and fast track at airports.
How would a thief know your phone pin? I haven't needed a physical card with me for years. There is no point to them now.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
I wonder what percentage of working-class people voted LD at the election. Probably around 5%. In the 1980s it would have been more like 15% (for the Lib/SDP Alliance).
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
Utterly antiquated. Won't last. They just need to pull their finger out.
P.S. I found one fuel stop in rural France like this when on holiday. Couldn't believe how backward that place was.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
Utterly antiquated. Won't last. They just need to pull their finger out.
P.S. I found one fuel stop in rural France like this when on holiday. Couldn't believe how backward that place was.
Diesel under £1.30 though right now there. I think they'll change to contactless in a couple of years, but it's not there yet.
The Burevestnik is a *really* bad idea. It's hideous that the UN and other agencies, particularly nuclear ones, looked the other way during Russia's tests. It's not just the payload that's dangerous; it's the missile's emissions itself.
Isn't the Electoral College system bizarre and heavily flawed. If one person wins the most national votes then they should be President. System is worse than ours.
Depends if you see it as the people across the US electing a president or the States deciding between themselves who should be president of the federation. If the latter, the system makes sense (to some extent). If the former, it's bizarre.
Isn't the Electoral College system bizarre and heavily flawed. If one person wins the most national votes then they should be President. System is worse than ours.
It makes sense if you start from the premise that the USA is rather more like the EU than the UK, in terms of its constitution.
The ultimate power lies with the States themselves, not with the Federal government, and each State is deciding who it wants to be President of the USA.
I couldn't work out whether it was the Telegraph going off on one or Alanbrooke and it turned out to be a mixture of the two.
Nothing to see .....;move on
Oh Roger even the BBC said the Junior Doctore will be back for more.
Regrettably there will be a lot more news on Labour incompetence over the next 5 years and you cant keep blaming the messengers.
Ed Miliband - theres a fk up on two legs who hasnt a clue what he is doing.
Not sure about the Ed Miliband thing - offshore wind development has 82% approval rating, including 82% among Tories and 73% among Reform voters.
The more they get Miliband on the news talking about the successful auctions, the better.
Offshore wind is not in anyone's back yard, though.
Onshore wind, on the other hand, I think the previous government was right to be cautious about.
Latest plan in this part of the world is for a large area of the Pennines north of Calderdale to be turned into a monster wind development. It is the nearest bit of open land for quite a large population and part of a peat restoration project. Not surprisingly it is somewhat controversial but if Ed decides that we must suffer this for the net zero project, it will no doubt get built.
As if the peat restoration couldn't take place _without_ building lots of roads and 200m turbines...
If the turbine project doesn't take place then the land continues I assume to be used as a grouse shoot - which in terms of biodiversity and carbon is pretty much bottom of the pile for that sort of peat land I think. I'd be inclined to be in favour of the project though I don't know too much about it other than the blurb on the site.
"£2.5m annual Community Benefit Fund paid to Calderdale Council to help relieve fuel poverty for 30 years.." will possible swing it.
That works out at around £8 per annum, per kW of capacity.
Yes, it might. I know the council people involved in the peat restoration though, and they are definitely not in favour.
They'll probably get ignored though.
Heavily managed grouse moors in these parts will eventually be killed off, I think, without having to spoil them with anything else. There are sites not far from Calderdale that have had the sheep and shooters thrown off and the number of species that have turned up is amazing. The old fashioned shoots (I could mention a couple of estates here, but probably best not) that still exist and do illegal or antisocial things are being tolerated less and less, particularly when their actions lead to flooding and peat loss. A bit more money for land restoration is all it would take for them to go.
With such a large surrounding population and a seemingly greater demand for wild(ish) spaces, it would do a lot of good for the area to keep it open, restore the bog where possible, and not turn it into a power station.
I want to see 500m turbines on Dogger Bank instead.
The arrays visible from the East Yorkshire coast are already impressive.
How good/inadequate are the mitigations for the scheme ?
I haven't seen the full details but I'm sure they will be impressively packaged.
The thing with 'mitigations' is that (and this is one of the main issues with Biodiversity Net Gain) some things cannot really be mitigated. It would be better to just not do them in the first place.
Climate change is important, but I'd rather live in a hot country with some open land and reasonably wild habitats than a very slightly less hot one covered in industry.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
Utterly antiquated. Won't last. They just need to pull their finger out.
P.S. I found one fuel stop in rural France like this when on holiday. Couldn't believe how backward that place was.
Re gambling reform: Focus was on reducing harm of online slots and casino games and the torrent of advertising of them. But also the establishment of an ombudsman for aggrieved punters.
Good luck!
Yes, traditionally the focus of these things has been on the harms of gambling, problems with machines in shops etc. - when for the regular gambling community the problem has been exactly the opposite, that you win a couple of bets and get reduced to pennies on the next bet thanks to very aggressive customer profiling.
Isn't the Electoral College system bizarre and heavily flawed. If one person wins the most national votes then they should be President. System is worse than ours.
It makes sense if you start from the premise that the USA is rather more like the EU than the UK, in terms of its constitution.
The ultimate power lies with the States themselves, not with the Federal government, and each State is deciding who it wants to be President of the USA.
It doesn't make sense. The USA isn't at all like the EU. The EU doesn't have a directly elected president. The EU president has very little power. The EU doesn't have 2 political parties that dominate across the Union - it doesn't even have any major political parties that operate in several countries. The electoral college system is stupid, and has no advantages only loads of disadvantages. That's why, although the US constitution has inspired many countries, no other democracy in the world has a system like the electoral college.
Off topic - but can I just say I'm impressed with Lloyds. Discovered I didn't know where my credit card was on Sunday afternoon so I reported it lost. New card arrived in today's post.
Good to hear. Buy a cheap wallet, add the card (and any other cards you use) to Apple Pay, then stow the wallet in a safe place in your house. You will never lose a credit card again.
You might lose the phone though.
Then you still have the card as backup, safe at home. And nobody can use your card but you when it's on Apple Pay.
One place a physical card is NEEDED (No cash either ) is Costco for fuel.
How do I pay for my fuel? The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
Utterly antiquated. Won't last. They just need to pull their finger out.
P.S. I found one fuel stop in rural France like this when on holiday. Couldn't believe how backward that place was.
Have you driven in New Jersey?
Trying to think if I have. Racking my brains, no. I have driven in CO, VA, NC, MD but no further north, from memory (and it was a long time ago in most cases).
He scrapes Penn by the tiny margin and there are days of court cases but he holds it.
He wins NC and MI. Again by small numbers.
But its enough and America and the West are f*cked.
I'm depressed writing this prediction and hope I am very very wrong but I think the polling is underplaying his 'shy trump voters' who refuse to deal with polling.
Trump voters have never struck me as particularly shy.
Which proves his point. You don't see the shy ones.
Yes. And let's hope the EC spreads come out before that becomes a more common view. I want to buy @ 280.
I'm disconcerted by your new profile pic. The old tin o' beans was a great visual handle to easily see who was speaking. One of the best. Can I request its return after the election?
Yes, deal. This is just until Nov 6th. I feel so strongly about this election that I had to do something. I thought about flying over there to help out but in the end decided the most effective thing I could do was change my PB profile pic.
This was posted entirely without irony, I assume?
Well my posts are widely read and the audience are largely influential people - so having a picture of Kamala Harris alongside each one might (subliminally) nudge opinion in the right direction.
I think you need to get your head out of your own arse.
My profile picture is cuts of beef from a cow, and I'm under no illusions it's convincing the masses to eat beef.
That's where you are very wrong. Why do you think I dined at Beefeater in Darlington Moreton Park last night?
I had the 8oz Sirloin, "cooked just the way you like it", thanks to your subliminal influence.
You had the 8oz Sirloin cooked just the way Casino Royale likes it? That really is dedication.
Yes. And let's hope the EC spreads come out before that becomes a more common view. I want to buy @ 280.
I'm disconcerted by your new profile pic. The old tin o' beans was a great visual handle to easily see who was speaking. One of the best. Can I request its return after the election?
Yes, deal. This is just until Nov 6th. I feel so strongly about this election that I had to do something. I thought about flying over there to help out but in the end decided the most effective thing I could do was change my PB profile pic.
This was posted entirely without irony, I assume?
Well my posts are widely read and the audience are largely influential people - so having a picture of Kamala Harris alongside each one might (subliminally) nudge opinion in the right direction.
I think you need to get your head out of your own arse.
My profile picture is cuts of beef from a cow, and I'm under no illusions it's convincing the masses to eat beef.
That's where you are very wrong. Why do you think I dined at Beefeater in Darlington Moreton Park last night?
I had the 8oz Sirloin, "cooked just the way you like it", thanks to your subliminal influence.
You had the 8oz Sirloin cooked just the way Casino Royale likes it? That really is dedication.
Dedication's what you need, if you wanna be a record breaker.
Landlords face £90,000 capital gains tax bills under a Labour shake-up of the country’s tax system, new analysis shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out aligning capital gains tax with income tax, which would see more of property owners’ house price gains hoovered up by the Treasury.
If the taxes were aligned, landlords looking to sell properties they bought before 2005 would have to fork out between £87,000 and £90,000.
This is a 67pc increase on the current £54,000 average that those selling their property after 20 years of ownership have to pay to cover the levy, according to estate agent Hamptons.
A Treasury spokesman said Ms Reeves “has been clear that difficult decisions lie ahead on spending, welfare and tax” to address the “£22bn black hole” in public finances.
Comments
Focus was on reducing harm of online slots and casino games and the torrent of advertising of them.
But also the establishment of an ombudsman for aggrieved punters.
She has to be better than Trump and his crazy trade tariffs which would be a disaster.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/kamala-harris/
People currently complain about the shallow tracks used by estates to get onto the tops; these windfarms devastate peat uplands.
(I am not a BANANA; I have zero problem with my local windfarm, on an old airfield.)
In a Parliamentary system victories by one side of the other can vary in strength depending on how strongly decided the electorate is, which means that a divided electorate will produce a government with less power to override the minority and enact radical change.
In a Presidency the outcome is binary and so you can have very large changes consequent on very fine margins.
Yes their Napoleonic inheritance laws are bizarre (I am currently in the process of transferring part ownership of a real estate company to my wife and need a signed letter from my sister permitting it) but everything
else works in the interest of the occupier.
As for under supply in cities and oversupply elsewhere, yes inner Paris is expensive but the second and third tier cities are very affordable and generally much more attractive than their UK equivalents. There is far less regional inequality than here. And prices drop off rapidly outside Paris so it’s much easier to buy property in commutable distance.
They’re lucky as a country to have an excellent and over-supplied housing stock. It’s not so much that the landmass is bigger, it’s that the French population was already very high - and dispersed across the country - in the pre-industrial age. We caught up later. Now we need to build to get into better balance.
Yes I will be in a small minority here...
New card arrived in today's post.
Aggressive rodents cause ‘pandemonium’ in Surrey as they attack passengers and force route to end prematurely
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/17/train-cancelled-squirrels-board-refuse-to-leave-surrey/
Things do, most of the time, yet we mostly all hear about when things go wrong.
Served in the Marines, apparently.
Similarly, Biden' Press Secretary is Haitian.
I don't think that was done to troll Trump.
Did we all know that the currently under fire Jewish Chronicle (from its own contributors like Baddiel and several others) is apparently run by Mrs May fanboi, BBC favourite and least well known BeeGee, Robbie Gibb?
Video of a Russian mothership UAV that carries two FPVs. Serhii Flash says he thinks Russia used one recently, and its FPVs hit targets 40km from the front line.
https://x.com/RALee85/status/1835837837519814834
He's just the Fed in Florida
Served in the Marines
That fact that he's from Haiti
Isn't what it seems.
But reality is this card is the one I travel with as I need it for lounge access and fast track at airports.
https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/1836033959769014401?s=46
https://www.costco.co.uk/fuel-q-and-a
How do I pay for my fuel?
The Fuel Station is entirely self-serve, with pay-at-the-pump technology. We accept Chip & PIN debit cards (UK Maestro, Visa Debit), and all forms of Chip & PIN major credit cards (Mastercard, American Express and Visa). Cash and mobile payment methods (e.g Apple Pay/Google Pay) are not currently accepted.
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/49978-how-britain-voted-in-the-2024-general-election
9/10% for DE and C2.
P.S. I found one fuel stop in rural France like this when on holiday. Couldn't believe how backward that place was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik
NEW THREAD
The ultimate power lies with the States themselves, not with the Federal government, and each State is deciding who it wants to be President of the USA.
The thing with 'mitigations' is that (and this is one of the main issues with Biodiversity Net Gain) some things cannot really be mitigated. It would be better to just not do them in the first place.
Climate change is important, but I'd rather live in a hot country with some open land and reasonably wild habitats than a very slightly less hot one covered in industry.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/kamala-harris/
Yes, traditionally the focus of these things has been on the harms of gambling, problems with machines in shops etc. - when for the regular gambling community the problem has been exactly the opposite, that you win a couple of bets and get reduced to pennies on the next bet thanks to very aggressive customer profiling.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7xnelvpepo
EC: Harris 319 Trump 219
eg in student lets a reverse calculation will be done assuming a yield of around ~8%, or whatever it is in the local market.