Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
Or a 5% taper per year of agricultural activity so a farm that has been active for 20+ years is exempted.
It doesn't matter how many better ways there were, Labour aren't interested. This is a revenge beating for the countryside that ripped the UK out of the EU. It's not rational policy making, it's angry urban lefties exacting revenge.
Though of course the NFU backed Remain and white working class ex industrial towns and seaside towns were even more strongly for Brexit than rural areas and Reform is now beating Labour in all of them
Brexit was NOTA. Reform is NOTA. Since NOTA never works, there will be a new one along shortly. To get back on topic, probably Plaid is NOTA in the Valleys.
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I don't think there is an explicit rule about oncoming cyclists - I've looked this up before. But I think the general guidance given by the Code would cover it anyway.
This is a regular issue for me on one particular street with parked cars. I just take primary position to prevent any squeezing from either direction, and pull in where possible to let oncoming cars pass.
I had three or four this morning oncoming that were, although around 10MPH, less than 1 metre. I didn’t feel unsafe more wary.
Most drivers will slow to a crawl or stop if there's that little space - curious that the behaviour is different for oncoming versus an overtake. Because they can see your face, acknowledge you as a fellow human being?
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
India doesn't allow dual citizenship, however. If you are of "Indian origin" you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which is in effect a life-long visa.
Awful news from Ahmedabad, and my brother, sis-in-law and 5 y.o. nephew just flew back from Bangalore on an Air India 787 on Saturday.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
That's a good point. I don't know. She may show a different passport at passport control than is registered with the airline. I'm not sure if those things are matched up.
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
We were out in Newcastle a Couple of Fridays ago. The bars were quiet. The restaurant packed. A sunny Friday in May. Before Covid the bars we went to would have been busy.
I really do not know how anyone can afford to eat and drink out
I cooked haddock, chips and peas for my beloved last night and it cost just over £4
The local chippy is advertising the same on a special offer of £27.50 !!!
The striking thing is just how little alcohol our family drinks and our 22 year old granddaughter is TT
Haddock, chips and mushies for 2??
4 x Birds Eye breaded haddock at £4.28 (on offer) equates to £1 each
My wife is an expert on white fish and her highly successful Scottish skipper father maintained that frozen haddock is as good as fresh, and to be fair it tastes wonderful
Thats 100g of fish per portion. Suspect the chippie will be 200-250g of fish each. Chips will be at least double normal portion too. Share it out and the price difference starts to looks sensible.
Even that is a lagging indicator. The real economy is in a hell of a mess.
Who could have ever thought that raising taxes on employment while leaving unearned incomes untaxed might not be the best way to manage an economy?
Savings are taxed. Dividends are taxed. The tax on dividends has been increased. Pensions are taxed. Assets when sold are taxed. Other than houses you live in. Are you suggesting CGT on the sale of houses?
True. but it's bad politics for workers to be taxed more heavily than the retired (like me). And the low tax/untaxed nature of residential property is a disaster distorting the market and giving all the wrong incentives.
Also distorting the market is the ludicrous IHT rules whereby the rate is far too high (40%) and the exemptions capricious (extra if you own a home etc) and the ways of avoiding it a series of open goals, keeping Lincoln's Inn in business.
Low rate (5-10%), no exemptions, CTT at the same rate on inter vivos transactions is the way forward.
What mince are you talking , the only tax (sic ) that can be different is NI for working pensioners. So unless you specifically mean that miniscule point then you are talking absolute bollox.
NI should apply to all pension income itself not just working.
Taxes should be no higher on working for a living than not working.
Don't like it? Get a job.
You halfwitted poltroon I have a job, can you actually read. I bet I pay more tax than you earn on benefits as well.
You don't pay NI, you don't pay the graduate tax, and I don't get a penny in benefits. So if you pay even a penny in tax that exceeds what I earn in benefits, but that's nothing to be proud of.
So other than that, great job. 0/3, well done.
I get NI and agree but why should he pay the graduate tax. Our generation precious few went to university. I didn’t. I got a trade. But my taxes funded people going to uni. Okay. That’s fine. It’s the best of the best. But nowadays it’s anyone and everyone. We don’t reap a massive benefit from that.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
India doesn't allow dual citizenship, however. If you are of "Indian origin" you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which is in effect a life-long visa.
Awful news from Ahmedabad, and my brother, sis-in-law and 5 y.o. nephew just flew back from Bangalore on an Air India 787 on Saturday.
Sometimes in our ignorance we do have the most pointless conversations on here. Thanks for that info.
Even that is a lagging indicator. The real economy is in a hell of a mess.
Who could have ever thought that raising taxes on employment while leaving unearned incomes untaxed might not be the best way to manage an economy?
Savings are taxed. Dividends are taxed. The tax on dividends has been increased. Pensions are taxed. Assets when sold are taxed. Other than houses you live in. Are you suggesting CGT on the sale of houses?
True. but it's bad politics for workers to be taxed more heavily than the retired (like me). And the low tax/untaxed nature of residential property is a disaster distorting the market and giving all the wrong incentives.
Also distorting the market is the ludicrous IHT rules whereby the rate is far too high (40%) and the exemptions capricious (extra if you own a home etc) and the ways of avoiding it a series of open goals, keeping Lincoln's Inn in business.
Low rate (5-10%), no exemptions, CTT at the same rate on inter vivos transactions is the way forward.
What mince are you talking , the only tax (sic ) that can be different is NI for working pensioners. So unless you specifically mean that miniscule point then you are talking absolute bollox.
NI should apply to all pension income itself not just working.
Taxes should be no higher on working for a living than not working.
Don't like it? Get a job.
You halfwitted poltroon I have a job, can you actually read. I bet I pay more tax than you earn on benefits as well.
You don't pay NI, you don't pay the graduate tax, and I don't get a penny in benefits. So if you pay even a penny in tax that exceeds what I earn in benefits, but that's nothing to be proud of.
So other than that, great job. 0/3, well done.
I get NI and agree but why should he pay the graduate tax. Our generation precious few went to university. I didn’t. I got a trade. But my taxes funded people going to uni. Okay. That’s fine. It’s the best of the best. But nowadays it’s anyone and everyone. We don’t reap a massive benefit from that.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
If more people going to university means its unaffordable, why doesn't the same logic apply to pensions and related benefits?
We spend considerably less as a proportion of GDP on education as we did when eg Thatcher was Education Secretary or Prime Minister.
We spend considerably more on age related welfare.
We should bring those proportions of GDP back to how they were. If more students means less expenditure per student, so be it. If more pensioners means less expenditure per pensioner, then what's sauce for the goose ...
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
We were out in Newcastle a Couple of Fridays ago. The bars were quiet. The restaurant packed. A sunny Friday in May. Before Covid the bars we went to would have been busy.
I really do not know how anyone can afford to eat and drink out
I cooked haddock, chips and peas for my beloved last night and it cost just over £4
The local chippy is advertising the same on a special offer of £27.50 !!!
The striking thing is just how little alcohol our family drinks and our 22 year old granddaughter is TT
Haddock, chips and mushies for 2??
4 x Birds Eye breaded haddock at £4.28 (on offer) equates to £1 each
My wife is an expert on white fish and her highly successful Scottish skipper father maintained that frozen haddock is as good as fresh, and to be fair it tastes wonderful
Thats 100g of fish per portion. Suspect the chippie will be 200-250g of fish each. Chips will be at least double normal portion too. Share it out and the price difference starts to looks sensible.
Only a tiny fraction of the cost of a takeaway actually goes on the food.
Paying for the staff, the building, the bills etc eats up far more.
All bills that have gone up this year, many by design of the Chancellor.
A useful update on the USA from the mighty David Allen Green. He provides a useful definition of constitutional crisis (as opposed to drama, situation etc):
A crisis is a volatile situation the outcome of which cannot be confidently forecast. If you can predict what will happen next – or even the range of what events may happen next – it is not a crisis.
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
We were out in Newcastle a Couple of Fridays ago. The bars were quiet. The restaurant packed. A sunny Friday in May. Before Covid the bars we went to would have been busy.
I really do not know how anyone can afford to eat and drink out
I cooked haddock, chips and peas for my beloved last night and it cost just over £4
The local chippy is advertising the same on a special offer of £27.50 !!!
The striking thing is just how little alcohol our family drinks and our 22 year old granddaughter is TT
Haddock, chips and mushies for 2??
4 x Birds Eye breaded haddock at £4.28 (on offer) equates to £1 each
My wife is an expert on white fish and her highly successful Scottish skipper father maintained that frozen haddock is as good as fresh, and to be fair it tastes wonderful
Thats 100g of fish per portion. Suspect the chippie will be 200-250g of fish each. Chips will be at least double normal portion too. Share it out and the price difference starts to looks sensible.
Only a tiny fraction of the cost of a takeaway actually goes on the food.
Paying for the staff, the building, the bills etc eats up far more.
All bills that have gone up this year, many by design of the Chancellor.
Of course. But starting by comparing like with like. And not just the Chancellor but the cross party trend of the last couple of decades, continued by the current Chancellor.
Sooner or later, any decision made by Starmer’s Labour government turns out to be damaging for the UK
This is now being applied to the Gibraltar deal. Falling apart under scrutiny
What's the problem with the Gibraltar deal? They have fixed the border FUBAR so that people are able to cross it freely again as they need to. Gibraltar remains a BOT, the military facility remains untouched, and the people who voted in almost unanimity to not fuck their lives up get the fix they voted for.
Loads of details about the passport arrangements now being revealed. Allegations on X such as: every British citizen entering Gibraltar will now have their passports checked by Spain and a stay in Gibraltar will count as a stay in Schenghen. As visiting the EU. The Spanish will control how and when the British visit British territory abroad
Likewise some are claiming this will apply to British troops or sailors in the Navy
OK. This is Gibraltar. The deal is great for everyone who lives there - who didn't vote to be walled in. The deal is great for the workers Gibraltar needs to cross from Spain and back each day. The deal makes no difference to most people travelling to Gibraltar as how may are close to the 90/180 barrier? Which itself is on its way out as we work towards a solution longer term.
So in practice this deal in a very practical way improves the lives of the people of Gibraltar who voted for it. But imposes a theoretical dictat on Mr Keyboard of Clacton who doesn't travel to forrin anyway.
Honestly this is classic @Leon. Shouting about stuff and expounding simple solutions to things that are always more complicated to implement. You wanted Brexit, which you thought was simple, but it had consequences, one of them being the border at Gibraltar. Are you coming up with a solution? No, just shouting again. This solves the big problem, but unfortunately may have a knock on problem for a small minority of others. You didn't seem to have any sympathy for all those people who were buggered by the 90/180 rule who had commitments (eg family), property of businesses in the EU, which was a huge number of people yet you are now worried about the very very minute number of Brits who both may make a visit to Gibraltar and who in addition might fall foul of the 90/180 day rule. With the exception of people stationed on Gibraltar it is unlikely to impact any UK visitors who weren't bordering on exceeding the limit anyway. You know those ones you didn't care about previously.
As far as people stationed on the rock there will obviously have to be a solution because some are not just Navy sailors visiting, but based there for 3/6/12 months so will all fail the 90 day test.
I don't see the issue: they would simply be residents. Just like a non-EU citizen resident in France technically is not supposed to spend more than 90/180 days in Schengen countries other than France. Not much by way of enforcement, of course.
Yep, I don't there will be one. I am fully aware that Govt cock things up, but even the most idiotic civil servant, I believe, will have covered this one in the negotiations.
Re the comment 'not much by way of enforcement, of course' is not correct. It is enforced. I personally know of two instances, in both cases errors by the border authorities, but in both cases visitors from the UK were held up for a few hours until resolved. If they had not been errors, I assume they would have been sent packing,as why both with detaining them in the first place.
I don't know much about my ancestors, but I know that my paternal great-grandparents migrated from NE Somerset in Merthyr Tydfil c.1900, to work in the burgeoning coalfields. Hence, Fear, a surname restricted to NE Somerset, became reasonably common in Glamorgan (all Fears are related to each other).
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
Alternative economic insight - Bakewell on Monday. Market Day. Town very busy, every coffee shop and eatery full with tables scarce. Market traders closing up early as all stock sold.
Coachloads coming in from as far as Manchester, Liverpool and Melton Mowbray full of Britain’s new grey monied elite. The healthy 50 and 60 something’s with time and money to burn keeping the economy moving.
I used to go to Bakewell regularly when I was on the Peak Park Authority. It is still one of my favourite day trips - except when you have to queue to get into the town.
Even that is a lagging indicator. The real economy is in a hell of a mess.
Who could have ever thought that raising taxes on employment while leaving unearned incomes untaxed might not be the best way to manage an economy?
Savings are taxed. Dividends are taxed. The tax on dividends has been increased. Pensions are taxed. Assets when sold are taxed. Other than houses you live in. Are you suggesting CGT on the sale of houses?
True. but it's bad politics for workers to be taxed more heavily than the retired (like me). And the low tax/untaxed nature of residential property is a disaster distorting the market and giving all the wrong incentives.
Also distorting the market is the ludicrous IHT rules whereby the rate is far too high (40%) and the exemptions capricious (extra if you own a home etc) and the ways of avoiding it a series of open goals, keeping Lincoln's Inn in business.
Low rate (5-10%), no exemptions, CTT at the same rate on inter vivos transactions is the way forward.
What mince are you talking , the only tax (sic ) that can be different is NI for working pensioners. So unless you specifically mean that miniscule point then you are talking absolute bollox.
NI should apply to all pension income itself not just working.
Taxes should be no higher on working for a living than not working.
Don't like it? Get a job.
You halfwitted poltroon I have a job, can you actually read. I bet I pay more tax than you earn on benefits as well.
You don't pay NI, you don't pay the graduate tax, and I don't get a penny in benefits. So if you pay even a penny in tax that exceeds what I earn in benefits, but that's nothing to be proud of.
So other than that, great job. 0/3, well done.
I get NI and agree but why should he pay the graduate tax. Our generation precious few went to university. I didn’t. I got a trade. But my taxes funded people going to uni. Okay. That’s fine. It’s the best of the best. But nowadays it’s anyone and everyone. We don’t reap a massive benefit from that.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
Nah. The point was that the previous generation could make the same choice without such an additional tax.
In any event 18 year olds have no real idea what we had to pay. For example the interest rate on the loan has been far higher than expected. I now earn higher than the median income but I pay a pathetically small amount off the capital per month due to the high interest rate AND the thresholds have been frozen
Sooner or later, any decision made by Starmer’s Labour government turns out to be damaging for the UK
This is now being applied to the Gibraltar deal. Falling apart under scrutiny
What's the problem with the Gibraltar deal? They have fixed the border FUBAR so that people are able to cross it freely again as they need to. Gibraltar remains a BOT, the military facility remains untouched, and the people who voted in almost unanimity to not fuck their lives up get the fix they voted for.
Loads of details about the passport arrangements now being revealed. Allegations on X such as: every British citizen entering Gibraltar will now have their passports checked by Spain and a stay in Gibraltar will count as a stay in Schenghen. As visiting the EU. The Spanish will control how and when the British visit British territory abroad
Likewise some are claiming this will apply to British troops or sailors in the Navy
OK. This is Gibraltar. The deal is great for everyone who lives there - who didn't vote to be walled in. The deal is great for the workers Gibraltar needs to cross from Spain and back each day. The deal makes no difference to most people travelling to Gibraltar as how may are close to the 90/180 barrier? Which itself is on its way out as we work towards a solution longer term.
So in practice this deal in a very practical way improves the lives of the people of Gibraltar who voted for it. But imposes a theoretical dictat on Mr Keyboard of Clacton who doesn't travel to forrin anyway.
Honestly this is classic @Leon. Shouting about stuff and expounding simple solutions to things that are always more complicated to implement. You wanted Brexit, which you thought was simple, but it had consequences, one of them being the border at Gibraltar. Are you coming up with a solution? No, just shouting again. This solves the big problem, but unfortunately may have a knock on problem for a small minority of others. You didn't seem to have any sympathy for all those people who were buggered by the 90/180 rule who had commitments (eg family), property of businesses in the EU, which was a huge number of people yet you are now worried about the very very minute number of Brits who both may make a visit to Gibraltar and who in addition might fall foul of the 90/180 day rule. With the exception of people stationed on Gibraltar it is unlikely to impact any UK visitors who weren't bordering on exceeding the limit anyway. You know those ones you didn't care about previously.
As far as people stationed on the rock there will obviously have to be a solution because some are not just Navy sailors visiting, but based there for 3/6/12 months so will all fail the 90 day test.
I don't see the issue: they would simply be residents. Just like a non-EU citizen resident in France technically is not supposed to spend more than 90/180 days in Schengen countries other than France. Not much by way of enforcement, of course.
Yep, I don't there will be one. I am fully aware that Govt cock things up, but even the most idiotic civil servant, I believe, will have covered this one in the negotiations.
Re the comment 'not much by way of enforcement, of course' is not correct. It is enforced. I personally know of two instances, in both cases errors by the border authorities, but in both cases visitors from the UK were held up for a few hours until resolved. if they had not been errors, I assume they would have been sent packing as why both with detaining them in the first case.
By enforcement, I mean this: if I get a work visa for France, and enter and live in France as a permanent resident, I do not have FoM. I am not supposed to be in Spain for 6 months a year, for example. That is relatively hard to enforce...
Even that is a lagging indicator. The real economy is in a hell of a mess.
Who could have ever thought that raising taxes on employment while leaving unearned incomes untaxed might not be the best way to manage an economy?
Savings are taxed. Dividends are taxed. The tax on dividends has been increased. Pensions are taxed. Assets when sold are taxed. Other than houses you live in. Are you suggesting CGT on the sale of houses?
True. but it's bad politics for workers to be taxed more heavily than the retired (like me). And the low tax/untaxed nature of residential property is a disaster distorting the market and giving all the wrong incentives.
Also distorting the market is the ludicrous IHT rules whereby the rate is far too high (40%) and the exemptions capricious (extra if you own a home etc) and the ways of avoiding it a series of open goals, keeping Lincoln's Inn in business.
Low rate (5-10%), no exemptions, CTT at the same rate on inter vivos transactions is the way forward.
What mince are you talking , the only tax (sic ) that can be different is NI for working pensioners. So unless you specifically mean that miniscule point then you are talking absolute bollox.
NI should apply to all pension income itself not just working.
Taxes should be no higher on working for a living than not working.
Don't like it? Get a job.
You halfwitted poltroon I have a job, can you actually read. I bet I pay more tax than you earn on benefits as well.
You don't pay NI, you don't pay the graduate tax, and I don't get a penny in benefits. So if you pay even a penny in tax that exceeds what I earn in benefits, but that's nothing to be proud of.
So other than that, great job. 0/3, well done.
I get NI and agree but why should he pay the graduate tax. Our generation precious few went to university. I didn’t. I got a trade. But my taxes funded people going to uni. Okay. That’s fine. It’s the best of the best. But nowadays it’s anyone and everyone. We don’t reap a massive benefit from that.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
Nah. The point was that the previous generation could make the same choice without such an additional tax.
In any event 18 year olds have no real idea what we had to pay. For example the interest rate on the loan has been far higher than expected. I now earn higher than the median income but I pay a pathetically small amount off the capital per month due to the high interest rate AND the thresholds have been frozen
Indeed, and its even worse for younger generations.
To get even an OK let alone a good job nowadays rather needs a degree and that means facing an immediate 37% tax rate not even including Employers NICs while on basic rate tax.
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
Alternative economic insight - Bakewell on Monday. Market Day. Town very busy, every coffee shop and eatery full with tables scarce. Market traders closing up early as all stock sold.
Coachloads coming in from as far as Manchester, Liverpool and Melton Mowbray full of Britain’s new grey monied elite. The healthy 50 and 60 something’s with time and money to burn keeping the economy moving.
I used to go to Bakewell regularly when I was on the Peak Park Authority. It is still one of my favourite day trips - except when you have to queue to get into the town.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
Alternative economic insight - Bakewell on Monday. Market Day. Town very busy, every coffee shop and eatery full with tables scarce. Market traders closing up early as all stock sold.
Coachloads coming in from as far as Manchester, Liverpool and Melton Mowbray full of Britain’s new grey monied elite. The healthy 50 and 60 something’s with time and money to burn keeping the economy moving.
I used to go to Bakewell regularly when I was on the Peak Park Authority. It is still one of my favourite day trips - except when you have to queue to get into the town.
Do the queues make you feel a bit tart about Bakewell?
The three most powerful men in the world, Putin, Xi and Trump, all had extraordinarily traumatic childhoods. Trump, though wealthy, had a sociopathic father who sent him to military school and for whom nothing was ever good enough. Xi endured some of the worst of the Cultural Revolution. Putin grew up with street gangs in the worst parts of Leningrad.
And we wonder why the world is becoming more turbulent.
I wonder if there is a way to stop damaged, destructive psychopaths from rising to the top of political systems? Certainly Presidential systems, which favour deluded, lying narcissists, are almost designed for them.
It's an important issue which I don't think gets nearly enough attention.
Interesting point. Obviously, Putin and Xi rose through effectively non-democratic systems compared to Trump. All rely on propaganda: in two cases, imposed by the state; in the other, self-selected by audiences within a capitalist system.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
Or a 5% taper per year of agricultural activity so a farm that has been active for 20+ years is exempted.
It doesn't matter how many better ways there were, Labour aren't interested. This is a revenge beating for the countryside that ripped the UK out of the EU. It's not rational policy making, it's angry urban lefties exacting revenge.
Though of course the NFU backed Remain and white working class ex industrial towns and seaside towns were even more strongly for Brexit than rural areas and Reform is now beating Labour in all of them
Brexit was NOTA. Reform is NOTA. Since NOTA never works, there will be a new one along shortly. To get back on topic, probably Plaid is NOTA in the Valleys.
Reform are doing well in the Valleys not just Plaid as Reform also are firmly anti immigration unlike Plaid, much as Brexit was in large part an anti immigration not just NOTA vote
As far as people stationed on the rock there will obviously have to be a solution because some are not just Navy sailors visiting, but based there for 3/6/12 months so will all fail the 90 day test.
This is a solved problem as there are already plenty of UK personnel permanently posted inside Schengen - SHAPE in Belgium, AIRCOM in Germany, etc.
The three most powerful men in the world, Putin, Xi and Trump, all had extraordinarily traumatic childhoods. Trump, though wealthy, had a sociopathic father who sent him to military school and for whom nothing was ever good enough. Xi endured some of the worst of the Cultural Revolution. Putin grew up with street gangs in the worst parts of Leningrad.
And we wonder why the world is becoming more turbulent.
I wonder if there is a way to stop damaged, destructive psychopaths from rising to the top of political systems? Certainly Presidential systems, which favour deluded, lying narcissists, are almost designed for them.
It's an important issue which I don't think gets nearly enough attention.
Interesting point. Obviously, Putin and Xi rose through effectively non-democratic systems compared to Trump. All rely on propaganda: in two cases, imposed by the state; in the other, self-selected by audiences within a capitalist system.
Yes, interesting thought. Private Eye has an article this week about the dangers of letting successful business tycoons (doubtful in Trump's case of course) anywhere near the top of politics because they're normally surrounded by Yes men and as Thatcher intimated, people at the top need someone to speak truth to power.
As far as people stationed on the rock there will obviously have to be a solution because some are not just Navy sailors visiting, but based there for 3/6/12 months so will all fail the 90 day test.
This is a solved problem as there are already plenty of UK personnel permanently posted inside Schengen - SHAPE in Belgium, AIRCOM in Germany, etc.
Yep.
And as for the 90/180 arrangements, this is what Boris demanded when he required Britain be tret as a 3rd country. I am confused by some of the people now complaining about Labour trying to solve the Tory mess!
Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
Or a 5% taper per year of agricultural activity so a farm that has been active for 20+ years is exempted.
It doesn't matter how many better ways there were, Labour aren't interested. This is a revenge beating for the countryside that ripped the UK out of the EU. It's not rational policy making, it's angry urban lefties exacting revenge.
Though of course the NFU backed Remain and white working class ex industrial towns and seaside towns were even more strongly for Brexit than rural areas and Reform is now beating Labour in all of them
Brexit was NOTA. Reform is NOTA. Since NOTA never works, there will be a new one along shortly. To get back on topic, probably Plaid is NOTA in the Valleys.
I don't think they were/are all NOTA. There's an element to that, but there's also a big slice of grievance politics. "You are hard done by and it's because of the EU/immigrants," is Farage's message. PC, as the SNP, have often done the same, but replace "EU/immigrants" by "Westminster/the English".
As far as people stationed on the rock there will obviously have to be a solution because some are not just Navy sailors visiting, but based there for 3/6/12 months so will all fail the 90 day test.
This is a solved problem as there are already plenty of UK personnel permanently posted inside Schengen - SHAPE in Belgium, AIRCOM in Germany, etc.
Yep.
And as for the 90/180 arrangements, this is what Boris demanded when he required Britain be tret as a 3rd country. I am confused by some of the people now complaining about Labour trying to solve the Tory mess!
Underlines the fact that Leaving was a bad idea, a short-term 'answer' to a different problem.
Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
Or a 5% taper per year of agricultural activity so a farm that has been active for 20+ years is exempted.
It doesn't matter how many better ways there were, Labour aren't interested. This is a revenge beating for the countryside that ripped the UK out of the EU. It's not rational policy making, it's angry urban lefties exacting revenge.
Though of course the NFU backed Remain and white working class ex industrial towns and seaside towns were even more strongly for Brexit than rural areas and Reform is now beating Labour in all of them
Brexit was NOTA. Reform is NOTA. Since NOTA never works, there will be a new one along shortly. To get back on topic, probably Plaid is NOTA in the Valleys.
Reform are doing well in the Valleys not just Plaid as Reform also are firmly anti immigration unlike Plaid, much as Brexit was in large part an anti immigration not just NOTA vote
Of course they are! Farage is going to reopen deep coal mines and both Port Talbot blast furnaces.
Hmmm. Budget yesterday - commentary verdicts seem to be somewhere around "Still on the road Speed Bumps Ahead".
I listened to the main speeches yesterday, and I thought Reeves to be quite flat, and perhaps not political enough.
Stride's response was imo not on planet earth - his reliance on comparisons with the fantasy numbers the Cons put forward at Election ("we would have ..."), and by which they lost 2/3 of their MPs, was embarrassing and risible, and his party is nowhere near a position to try and occupy the high ground.
Reeves' reply was better, but still imo not enough of a stake through the heart on the Cons.
On the budget, £39bn to help social housing over 10 years looks like something like 400-800k houses, or 40-80k per year average at 50-100k per unit assuming a partial contribution. Enough in quantity, and is it deloverable?
It may help, and one hopes that social housing providers have the systems in place to enforce standards better - usually the houses have higher spec than equivalent developer houses for sale.
I can't see too many landmines yet, except perhaps impact of police costs on Council Tax, but perhaps there is an upside to reminding communities that we pay for our own police. Usually in England about 2/3 of police funding is national, so there is room to shift that a little.
My first political thought is that the Govt need to make sure they follow through on Council Tax reform alongside the Local Govt reorganisation, including making Council Tax properly proportional to house value, and abolishing Stamp Duty as the biscuit.
Yet Freedman's conclusion is "...the decision to keep health spending lower than the historical average is the single biggest political risk the government is taking".
We need radical measures to make people take more responsibility for their own health. Give people fitbits and tax credits for exercise. Massive public health campaigns around diet. We also need to think about end of life care. We are spending increasing chunks of GDP rectifying people's poor lifestyle choices and keeping people alive for a few extra months of low quality life, and starving areas like infrastructure and education where spending could make a far greater difference to our wealth and wellbeing. It's madness.
Normalising assisted dying for end of life will improve matters tremendously, primarily for those who are suffering.
You haven't read the Bill have you? Pain is not a reason to get AD under the Bill.
The Bill doesn't remotely go far enough, but if this is the compromise needed to get it through then better than nothing.
Hopefully in a few years time, when people get over the fact that its happened and the world hasn't ended, it can be democratically liberalised much further.
Hopefully one day we'll look back and question how we ever had a situation where people in suffering weren't allowed to end their pain as humanely as we treat beloved pets.
Deserted yesterday. What we may be seeing is families without children taking their holidays early before the schools break up and prices skyrocket. And in light of recent years, also before August heatwaves make France and points south unbearable. (Or, who knows, they might just be following the Gazette's travel writer.)
All of which means less spending in Blighty and more invisible imports wrecking our balance of trade.
Alternative economic insight - Bakewell on Monday. Market Day. Town very busy, every coffee shop and eatery full with tables scarce. Market traders closing up early as all stock sold.
Coachloads coming in from as far as Manchester, Liverpool and Melton Mowbray full of Britain’s new grey monied elite. The healthy 50 and 60 something’s with time and money to burn keeping the economy moving.
I used to go to Bakewell regularly when I was on the Peak Park Authority. It is still one of my favourite day trips - except when you have to queue to get into the town.
Do the queues make you feel a bit tart about Bakewell?
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
If you are dual national, you are supposed to travel in and out of the countries you have passports for on that passport.
So enter and leave India on your Indian passport. Enter and leave UK on your U.K. passport.
In the UK, if you are a citizen, your other nationalities are legally irrelevant - you have no right of consular access etc to another country. You are just a U.K. citizens for all purposes.
Nearly every country does the same for dual nationals.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
If you are dual national, you are supposed to travel in and out of the countries you have passports for on that passport.
So enter and leave India on your Indian passport. Enter and leave UK on your U.K. passport.
In the UK, if you are a citizen, your other nationalities are legally irrelevant - you have no right of consular access etc to another country. You are just a U.K. citizens for all purposes.
Nearly every country does the same for dual nationals.
Except, as explained above, India does NOT allow dual citizenship...
If you are of "Indian origin" you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which is in effect a life-long visa.
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I think the principle is clear - the motor should leave at least 1.5m (or 2m if >30mph), and if there is not space they should stop and wait under hierarchy of road users, unless the cyclist has crossed onto their side of the road when they should still stop for Duty of Care but the cyclist is probably a dolt.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
(We don't want that sort of alternative fact on here!)
Fact is down from 7.42 to 7.39 million
Long way to go
Thanks for that. Can we thus consider it a rise in waiting times?
When the Conservatives were in Government in 2010 satisfaction with the NHS was at an all time high. 15 years later under a Labour Government it's never been worse.
Not now but if Kemi was removed as leader and replaced by Jenrick I suspect a few One Nation Tory MPs ie the type who backed Stride, Tugendhat and Cleverly at the last leadership election and represent southern seats would indeed go LD. Certainly if Jenrick made a pact with Farage
A useful update on the USA from the mighty David Allen Green. He provides a useful definition of constitutional crisis (as opposed to drama, situation etc):
A crisis is a volatile situation the outcome of which cannot be confidently forecast. If you can predict what will happen next – or even the range of what events may happen next – it is not a crisis.
Even that is a lagging indicator. The real economy is in a hell of a mess.
Who could have ever thought that raising taxes on employment while leaving unearned incomes untaxed might not be the best way to manage an economy?
Savings are taxed. Dividends are taxed. The tax on dividends has been increased. Pensions are taxed. Assets when sold are taxed. Other than houses you live in. Are you suggesting CGT on the sale of houses?
True. but it's bad politics for workers to be taxed more heavily than the retired (like me). And the low tax/untaxed nature of residential property is a disaster distorting the market and giving all the wrong incentives.
Also distorting the market is the ludicrous IHT rules whereby the rate is far too high (40%) and the exemptions capricious (extra if you own a home etc) and the ways of avoiding it a series of open goals, keeping Lincoln's Inn in business.
Low rate (5-10%), no exemptions, CTT at the same rate on inter vivos transactions is the way forward.
What mince are you talking , the only tax (sic ) that can be different is NI for working pensioners. So unless you specifically mean that miniscule point then you are talking absolute bollox.
NI should apply to all pension income itself not just working.
Taxes should be no higher on working for a living than not working.
Don't like it? Get a job.
You halfwitted poltroon I have a job, can you actually read. I bet I pay more tax than you earn on benefits as well.
You don't pay NI, you don't pay the graduate tax, and I don't get a penny in benefits. So if you pay even a penny in tax that exceeds what I earn in benefits, but that's nothing to be proud of.
So other than that, great job. 0/3, well done.
I get NI and agree but why should he pay the graduate tax. Our generation precious few went to university. I didn’t. I got a trade. But my taxes funded people going to uni. Okay. That’s fine. It’s the best of the best. But nowadays it’s anyone and everyone. We don’t reap a massive benefit from that.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
Nah. The point was that the previous generation could make the same choice without such an additional tax.
In any event 18 year olds have no real idea what we had to pay. For example the interest rate on the loan has been far higher than expected. I now earn higher than the median income but I pay a pathetically small amount off the capital per month due to the high interest rate AND the thresholds have been frozen
Back in my day (I know, I know) students planning to enter such professions as accountancy, banking or the law (certainly solicitors) normally did so by leaving school at 16 with a clutch of decent O levels and completing the professional society's exams. Even in my son's time, thirty years later one could get a decent City job and do professional exams, combined with practical experience.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
It's probably fine if you never intend to travel to India. If she traveled to India on her (theoretically retained) Indian passport then she'd have no valid UK visa in it to come back. If she took her UK passport with her then there's a chance of discovery at customs. She is far less insouciant than me when it comes to flouting the law.
Ultimately, the very slim benefits of Indian citizen vs. NRI status don't make it worth the risk and hassle.
Even that is a lagging indicator. The real economy is in a hell of a mess.
Who could have ever thought that raising taxes on employment while leaving unearned incomes untaxed might not be the best way to manage an economy?
Savings are taxed. Dividends are taxed. The tax on dividends has been increased. Pensions are taxed. Assets when sold are taxed. Other than houses you live in. Are you suggesting CGT on the sale of houses?
True. but it's bad politics for workers to be taxed more heavily than the retired (like me). And the low tax/untaxed nature of residential property is a disaster distorting the market and giving all the wrong incentives.
Also distorting the market is the ludicrous IHT rules whereby the rate is far too high (40%) and the exemptions capricious (extra if you own a home etc) and the ways of avoiding it a series of open goals, keeping Lincoln's Inn in business.
Low rate (5-10%), no exemptions, CTT at the same rate on inter vivos transactions is the way forward.
What mince are you talking , the only tax (sic ) that can be different is NI for working pensioners. So unless you specifically mean that miniscule point then you are talking absolute bollox.
NI should apply to all pension income itself not just working.
Taxes should be no higher on working for a living than not working.
Don't like it? Get a job.
You halfwitted poltroon I have a job, can you actually read. I bet I pay more tax than you earn on benefits as well.
You don't pay NI, you don't pay the graduate tax, and I don't get a penny in benefits. So if you pay even a penny in tax that exceeds what I earn in benefits, but that's nothing to be proud of.
So other than that, great job. 0/3, well done.
I get NI and agree but why should he pay the graduate tax. Our generation precious few went to university. I didn’t. I got a trade. But my taxes funded people going to uni. Okay. That’s fine. It’s the best of the best. But nowadays it’s anyone and everyone. We don’t reap a massive benefit from that.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
If more people going to university means its unaffordable, why doesn't the same logic apply to pensions and related benefits?
We spend considerably less as a proportion of GDP on education as we did when eg Thatcher was Education Secretary or Prime Minister.
We spend considerably more on age related welfare.
We should bring those proportions of GDP back to how they were. If more students means less expenditure per student, so be it. If more pensioners means less expenditure per pensioner, then what's sauce for the goose ...
You’ll find we’re not miles apart on this. Enjoy your day
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
If you are dual national, you are supposed to travel in and out of the countries you have passports for on that passport.
So enter and leave India on your Indian passport. Enter and leave UK on your U.K. passport.
In the UK, if you are a citizen, your other nationalities are legally irrelevant - you have no right of consular access etc to another country. You are just a U.K. citizens for all purposes.
Nearly every country does the same for dual nationals.
Except, as explained above, India does NOT allow dual citizenship...
If you are of "Indian origin" you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which is in effect a life-long visa.
Isn’t the OCI just a hack to get round a law which some didn’t want changed?
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I think the principle is clear - the motor should leave at least 1.5m (or 2m if >30mph), and if there is not space they should stop and wait under hierarchy of road users, unless the cyclist has crossed onto their side of the road when they should still stop for Duty of Care but the cyclist is probably a dolt.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
But having said that, it is tempered as ever by "what happens if they don't stop".
Thank you and also thank you @eabhal for your responses
Last thing I want to do is start dobbing in my neighbours but I’m getting the right hunp over the lack of consideration. I’d rather they were aware than shook down for money
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
It's probably fine if you never intend to travel to India. If she traveled to India on her (theoretically retained) Indian passport then she'd have no valid UK visa in it to come back. If she took her UK passport with her then there's a chance of discovery at customs. She is far less insouciant than me when it comes to flouting the law.
Ultimately, the very slim benefits of Indian citizen vs. NRI status don't make it worth the risk and hassle.
It’s interesting that the border authorities would care whether their own citizens can leave their own country again.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
If you are dual national, you are supposed to travel in and out of the countries you have passports for on that passport.
So enter and leave India on your Indian passport. Enter and leave UK on your U.K. passport.
In the UK, if you are a citizen, your other nationalities are legally irrelevant - you have no right of consular access etc to another country. You are just a U.K. citizens for all purposes.
Nearly every country does the same for dual nationals.
Except, as explained above, India does NOT allow dual citizenship...
If you are of "Indian origin" you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which is in effect a life-long visa.
Isn’t the OCI just a hack to get round a law which some didn’t want changed?
I have an OCI myself, because I am a British citizen, and have never held Indian citizenship. Part of the process required me having to get a notarised affidavit stating I never held Indian citizenship!
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
Spot the almost subliminal flash of Rachel Reeves towards the end of Clarkson's Farm S4 E8!
I like Clarkson's Farm but that stuff really winds me up. Whatever you think of the IHT change, the motivation for it was to prevent people like Clarkson inflating land prices by using it as a tax dodge. Part of the reason someone like Kaleb struggles to buy a farm is because the agricultural returns are so small, so the breakeven point is sometimes centuries in the future.
I'd forgive him if at the end of the next season he sells the land to Kaleb for a fair price for use as a farm (e.g. something like £0).
Labour should have just exempted family farms and small businesses held for 2 generations or more from the IHT tax changes, that way tax dodgers would still have been hit and not been competing with the likes of Kaleb to buy farmland but traditional farming families wouldn't
Simpler - the IHT would be due when the land is sold. If the land is inherited again, then the IHT is replaced with the latest value, not doubled up.
So if you keep the family farm in the family - no tax. If you make money from selling it, you pay the IHT out of that.
I think tax could have been raised in a fairer way by leaving IHT alone and by getting rid of "rebasing" for CGT on death.
I inherited a business from my Dad. He'd built it from scratch so was sitting on a large unrealised gain. I inherited it with zero CGT and zero IHT. Happy as that made me, it seems unfair.
CGT is only payable on disposal, so getting rid of rebasing doesn't trigger sob stories about family farms having to be sold to meet a tax bill on death, but it does disincentivise the use of farmland to shelter "passive" wealth and pass it to the next generation.
(With inflation likely to be more of an issue in the next 20 years than it was in the last 20, we also need to look at reintroducing indexation for CGT, especially if the headline rate is going up any further, but that is a separate point).
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
It's probably fine if you never intend to travel to India. If she traveled to India on her (theoretically retained) Indian passport then she'd have no valid UK visa in it to come back. If she took her UK passport with her then there's a chance of discovery at customs. She is far less insouciant than me when it comes to flouting the law.
Ultimately, the very slim benefits of Indian citizen vs. NRI status don't make it worth the risk and hassle.
I'm sure there is an official "Certificate of Indian passport surrender" or somesuch.
Mum still has her Indian passport, but has a new-fangled "E-visa" (Indefinite Leave). Due to teething problems with the system when trying to "link" to a new passport, I've told her to hang onto her much older passport with paper Visa sticker AND her BRP (Biometric Residence Permit) just in case!
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
They had RefCon at 55% earlier in the year (28 and 27)
(We don't want that sort of alternative fact on here!)
Fact is down from 7.42 to 7.39 million
Long way to go
Thanks for that. Can we thus consider it a rise in waiting times?
When the Conservatives were in Government in 2010 satisfaction with the NHS was at an all time high. 15 years later under a Labour Government it's never been worse.
I believe covid has had a large effect, not just on the economy and debt, but also long covid and the change in behaviour since
Labour are spending untold billions on the NHS, and another 29 billion yesterday and yet it remains a bottomless pit for money
Social care needs sorting, but that has been kicked into the long grass
And as you know, Wales NHS is in a shocking state under Welsh Labour
Younger PBers might be interested to know that it's looking increasingly likely we (or rather a small probe) could reach Alpha Centauri in about four decades.
Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57749-y The Starshot Breakthrough Initiative aims to send gram-scale microchip probes to Alpha Centauri within 20 years, propelled by laser-driven lightsails at a fifth of light speed. This mission demands innovative lightsail materials with meter-scale dimensions, nanoscale thickness, and billions of nanoscale holes for enhanced reflectivity and reduced mass. Unlike the microchip payload, lightsail fabrication requires breakthroughs in optics, materials science, and structural engineering. Our study uses neural topology optimization, revealing a novel pentagonal lattice-based photonic crystal (PhC) reflector. The optimized designs significantly lower the acceleration times and, thereby, launch cost. Crucially, they also enabled orders-of-magnitude fabrication cost reduction. We fabricated a 60 × 60 mm2, 200 nm thick reflector with over a billion nanoscale features, achieving a 9000-fold cost reduction per m2. This represents the highest aspect ratio nanophotonic element to date. While stringent requirements remain for lightsails, scalable, cost-effective nanophotonics present promising solutions for next-generation space exploration.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
Freshwater Strategies will be the gold standard once they get their BPC certification.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
(We don't want that sort of alternative fact on here!)
Fact is down from 7.42 to 7.39 million
Long way to go
Thanks for that. Can we thus consider it a rise in waiting times?
When the Conservatives were in Government in 2010 satisfaction with the NHS was at an all time high. 15 years later under a Labour Government it's never been worse.
I believe covid has had a large effect, not just on the economy and debt, but also long covid and the change in behaviour since
Labour are spending untold billions on the NHS, and another 29 billion yesterday and yet it remains a bottomless pit for money
Social care needs sorting, but that has been kicked into the long grass
And as you know, Wales NHS is in a shocking state under Welsh Labour
The NHS, and health generally, has to be a bottomless pit. Ill health will always be with us, especially, as you and I know, one ages!
And social care is 'too difficult'. For the same reason.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
It's probably fine if you never intend to travel to India. If she traveled to India on her (theoretically retained) Indian passport then she'd have no valid UK visa in it to come back. If she took her UK passport with her then there's a chance of discovery at customs. She is far less insouciant than me when it comes to flouting the law.
Ultimately, the very slim benefits of Indian citizen vs. NRI status don't make it worth the risk and hassle.
Ah, didn't know about NRI. As I understand it it's much harder for China. If you give up citizenship, you need a visa just the same as anyone else. To re-migrate, say to look after ageing relatives, requires a complicated application (or so I am told).
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
Freshwater Strategies will be the gold standard once they get their BPC certification.
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
It's probably fine if you never intend to travel to India. If she traveled to India on her (theoretically retained) Indian passport then she'd have no valid UK visa in it to come back. If she took her UK passport with her then there's a chance of discovery at customs. She is far less insouciant than me when it comes to flouting the law.
Ultimately, the very slim benefits of Indian citizen vs. NRI status don't make it worth the risk and hassle.
Ah, didn't know about NRI. As I understand it it's much harder for China. If you give citizenship, you need a visa. To re-migrate, say to look after ageing relatives, requires a complicated application (or so I am told).
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
My wife has US and Irish passports. She's always used the US passport when travelling to the US and the Irish passport in the other direction.
Anyone with a British passport would use it when travelling to Britain to avoid any question of visa issues.
Airlines don't mind if you put in two different passport numbers for out and return?
I suspect this only works for her because the USA, like us, doesn't have exit controls.
It's irrelevant anyway because you can't have dual nationality with Indian citizenship. Mrs DA had to surrender Indian citizenship when she got her brexit bus pass.
I have friends who were supposed to give up Chinese citizenship when they took British, but didn't. They use the Chinese passports when visiting China so it isn't noticed. And they don't tell their friends, so no-one dobs them in.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
I think the authorities would know by the status of the British long stay visa/ILR stamp in their Chinese or Indian passports. You wouldn't get one if you are a UK national. They may not bother to check of course.
And add, they wouldn't be able to return to the UK on their Chinese or Indian passports.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
He can, and inevitably he has.
Caveat emptor: An applicant to the BPC only, and seen as Liberal favourable in its native Australia.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
The RAT may have been down…
Does that indicate there might have been an engine or electrical failure?
(For other readers, the RAT is a small turbine/generator that can be deployed to generate electrical power from the airflow over the fuselage.)
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I don't think there is an explicit rule about oncoming cyclists - I've looked this up before. But I think the general guidance given by the Code would cover it anyway.
This is a regular issue for me on one particular street with parked cars. I just take primary position to prevent any squeezing from either direction, and pull in where possible to let oncoming cars pass.
I had three or four this morning oncoming that were, although around 10MPH, less than 1 metre. I didn’t feel unsafe more wary.
Most drivers will slow to a crawl or stop if there's that little space - curious that the behaviour is different for oncoming versus an overtake. Because they can see your face, acknowledge you as a fellow human being?
You’re right. Most do. They stop and let me pass usually but this morning was different
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
I thought that was why, when I was in the NHS, we were taught to look at civil aviation as the gold standard in 'why' when looking at disasters.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
I never said you could but both the Conservatives and Reform are right of centre parties as I said, so my statement it 'would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015' stands
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Usually of course, because the poor b****rs can't answer back.
~80% of all aviation mishaps are caused by the operating crew, so it's a pretty safe bet.
General aviation? I can imagine so. Civil aviation? I'd like to see the figures.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
Wasn't there a United (or American) Airlines First Officer pulled off a flight for being several times over the drink driving limit?
Mind you I am always relieved when I pull out the safety card and the aircraft code starts with an "A" . I am genuinely cheered.
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I think the principle is clear - the motor should leave at least 1.5m (or 2m if >30mph), and if there is not space they should stop and wait under hierarchy of road users, unless the cyclist has crossed onto their side of the road when they should still stop for Duty of Care but the cyclist is probably a dolt.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
But having said that, it is tempered as ever by "what happens if they don't stop".
Thank you and also thank you @eabhal for your responses
Last thing I want to do is start dobbing in my neighbours but I’m getting the right hunp over the lack of consideration. I’d rather they were aware than shook down for money
I don't honestly get many problems, but I've been light on cycling (just a couple of times this year) whilst building my fitness back up. The one non-camera thing I do find makes a difference in my circumstances is my PassPixi, which does get noticed. But that can only be seen from behind. It says "I'm running Shrodinger's video camera, and you can't tell". I have not had hostility, but I take care to wave them through as soon as sensibly possible.
You could play with a real or fake helmet cam which would be seen from the front.
I think the other thing that does make a difference is assertiveness eg taking primary in pinch points and so on, enough in advance so they have time to react.
Personally, I have recently (last 12 months) been more focused on being assertive on pedestrian priority at side road and roundabout entrances, and I think that one is getting through.
Plan B is to become an anti-barrier activist and clear out all your local off road routes so you can go where they cannot get at you mile .
"There were 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals on board."
Edit: Any reason a British Indian would travel on an Indian passport? So maybe more than 53.
In the past people would do it to avoid the visa charge but in the post OCI world it's extremely rare and the Indian government has been very tough on cracking down on it because India doesn't allow dual nationality.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
The RAT may have been down…
Does that indicate there might have been an engine or electrical failure?
(For other readers, the RAT is a small turbine/generator that can be deployed to generate electrical power from the airflow over the fuselage.)
It's a big old bird to lift from 600ft to safety if an engine fails.
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I think the principle is clear - the motor should leave at least 1.5m (or 2m if >30mph), and if there is not space they should stop and wait under hierarchy of road users, unless the cyclist has crossed onto their side of the road when they should still stop for Duty of Care but the cyclist is probably a dolt.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
But having said that, it is tempered as ever by "what happens if they don't stop".
Thank you and also thank you @eabhal for your responses
Last thing I want to do is start dobbing in my neighbours but I’m getting the right hunp over the lack of consideration. I’d rather they were aware than shook down for money
I don't honestly get many problems, but I've been light on cycling (just a couple of times this year) whilst building my fitness back up. The one non-camera thing I do find makes a difference in my circumstances is my PassPixi, which does get noticed. But that can only be seen from behind. It says "I'm running Shrodinger's video camera, and you can't tell". I have not had hostility, but I take care to wave them through as soon as sensibly possible.
You could play with a real or fake helmet cam which would be seen from the front.
I think the other thing that does make a difference is assertiveness eg taking primary in pinch points and so on, enough in advance so they have time to react.
Personally, I have recently (last 12 months) been more focused on being assertive on pedestrian priority at side road and roundabout entrances, and I think that one is getting through.
Plan B is to become an anti-barrier activist and clear out all your local off road routes so you can go where they cannot get at you mile .
PassPixi has completely transformed my cycling experience. Varia too, but that's very pricey and I don't use it in town.
The Freshwater Strategy poll from City AM is now out on their website Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2 Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40 *subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
53% Reform and Con with them then, would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015
@Mexicanpete just warned about that and I expected you to fall in the trap, which you have
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
I never said you could but both the Conservatives and Reform are right of centre parties as I said, so my statement it 'would be the highest voteshare for right of centre parties in the UK since the 50% for the Tories and UKIP in 2015' stands
Not the highest poll though. Freshwater (who it seems have a very pro-right House effect) had Ref 28 Con 27 in April.
Anyway, as others have said, there are reasons that Reform voters are not backing the Tories and vice versa; they are not two versions of the same thing.
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
The RAT may have been down…
Does that indicate there might have been an engine or electrical failure?
(For other readers, the RAT is a small turbine/generator that can be deployed to generate electrical power from the airflow over the fuselage.)
The famous incident when bird strikes knocked out both engines and Captain Sullenberger had to land his A320 on the Hudson River
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I think the principle is clear - the motor should leave at least 1.5m (or 2m if >30mph), and if there is not space they should stop and wait under hierarchy of road users, unless the cyclist has crossed onto their side of the road when they should still stop for Duty of Care but the cyclist is probably a dolt.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
But having said that, it is tempered as ever by "what happens if they don't stop".
Thank you and also thank you @eabhal for your responses
Last thing I want to do is start dobbing in my neighbours but I’m getting the right hunp over the lack of consideration. I’d rather they were aware than shook down for money
I don't honestly get many problems, but I've been light on cycling (just a couple of times this year) whilst building my fitness back up. The one non-camera thing I do find makes a difference in my circumstances is my PassPixi, which does get noticed. But that can only be seen from behind. It says "I'm running Shrodinger's video camera, and you can't tell". I have not had hostility, but I take care to wave them through as soon as sensibly possible.
You could play with a real or fake helmet cam which would be seen from the front.
I think the other thing that does make a difference is assertiveness eg taking primary in pinch points and so on, enough in advance so they have time to react.
Personally, I have recently (last 12 months) been more focused on being assertive on pedestrian priority at side road and roundabout entrances, and I think that one is getting through.
Plan B is to become an anti-barrier activist and clear out all your local off road routes so you can go where they cannot get at you mile .
PassPixi has completely transformed my cycling experience. Varia too, but that's very pricey and I don't use it in town.
A lot of the anti pensioners vitriol seems to stem from them sitting on equity. What on earth would be the point in working for 50 years, paying off a mortgage and then 'downsizing' to some soulless shoebox? And all to support 'young people' to work 50 years, pay off a mortgage and...... People aren't battery hens.
The most gorgeous home I've ever been in was a one bed flat in central Stockholm, owned by two pensioners. They'd sold their 4 bed family home when the kids left and owned a share in a lakeside cabin.
The rest of their cash went into considerable volumes of alcohol and a fish-based diet. They cycled everywhere, despite having mobility problems, and gave us a deeply entertaining tour of the city before lending us the hut for the weekend.
I go out every morning for a cycle ride. Is it a close pass irrespective of the direction of the traffic or only if the traffic is in the same direction of travel as you ?
I think the principle is clear - the motor should leave at least 1.5m (or 2m if >30mph), and if there is not space they should stop and wait under hierarchy of road users, unless the cyclist has crossed onto their side of the road when they should still stop for Duty of Care but the cyclist is probably a dolt.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
But having said that, it is tempered as ever by "what happens if they don't stop".
Thank you and also thank you @eabhal for your responses
Last thing I want to do is start dobbing in my neighbours but I’m getting the right hunp over the lack of consideration. I’d rather they were aware than shook down for money
I don't honestly get many problems, but I've been light on cycling (just a couple of times this year) whilst building my fitness back up. The one non-camera thing I do find makes a difference in my circumstances is my PassPixi, which does get noticed. But that can only be seen from behind. It says "I'm running Shrodinger's video camera, and you can't tell". I have not had hostility, but I take care to wave them through as soon as sensibly possible.
You could play with a real or fake helmet cam which would be seen from the front.
I think the other thing that does make a difference is assertiveness eg taking primary in pinch points and so on, enough in advance so they have time to react.
Personally, I have recently (last 12 months) been more focused on being assertive on pedestrian priority at side road and roundabout entrances, and I think that one is getting through.
Plan B is to become an anti-barrier activist and clear out all your local off road routes so you can go where they cannot get at you mile .
PassPixi has completely transformed my cycling experience. Varia too, but that's very pricey and I don't use it in town.
I’m going out now to watch Joseph in the toon. But I’ll look up passpixi when I get back
An aviation 'expert' on BBC News at 11.20 seemed rather keen to blame the pilots for the crash, citing a misconfiguration (landing gear down, no visible flaps). They did not discuss any other potential causes or factors that may have led to the crash, e.g. bird strike, mechanical failure, etc, etc.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
The RAT may have been down…
Does that indicate there might have been an engine or electrical failure?
(For other readers, the RAT is a small turbine/generator that can be deployed to generate electrical power from the airflow over the fuselage.)
The famous incident when bird strikes knocked out both engines and Captain Sullenberger had to land his A320 on the Hudson River
Comments
Awful news from Ahmedabad, and my brother, sis-in-law and 5 y.o. nephew just flew back from Bangalore on an Air India 787 on Saturday.
Uni education is a free market and people go into it knowing what it is and what they have to pay.
Glad your family weren't on this plane.
We spend considerably less as a proportion of GDP on education as we did when eg Thatcher was Education Secretary or Prime Minister.
We spend considerably more on age related welfare.
We should bring those proportions of GDP back to how they were. If more students means less expenditure per student, so be it. If more pensioners means less expenditure per pensioner, then what's sauce for the goose ...
Paying for the staff, the building, the bills etc eats up far more.
All bills that have gone up this year, many by design of the Chancellor.
A crisis is a volatile situation the outcome of which cannot be confidently forecast. If you can predict what will happen next – or even the range of what events may happen next – it is not a crisis.
https://davidallengreen.com/2025/06/a-postcard-from-a-spectator-of-a-constitutional-crisis/
Re the comment 'not much by way of enforcement, of course' is not correct. It is enforced. I personally know of two instances, in both cases errors by the border authorities, but in both cases visitors from the UK were held up for a few hours until resolved. If they had not been errors, I assume they would have been sent packing,as why both with detaining them in the first place.
I don't know much about my ancestors, but I know that my paternal great-grandparents migrated from NE Somerset in Merthyr Tydfil c.1900, to work in the burgeoning coalfields. Hence, Fear, a surname restricted to NE Somerset, became reasonably common in Glamorgan (all Fears are related to each other).
In any event 18 year olds have no real idea what we had to pay. For example the interest rate on the loan has been far higher than expected. I now earn higher than the median income but I pay a pathetically small amount off the capital per month due to the high interest rate AND the thresholds have been frozen
https://www.england.nhs.uk/2025/06/nhs-waiting-list-hits-two-year-low-as-staff-work-to-turn-the-tide/
To get even an OK let alone a good job nowadays rather needs a degree and that means facing an immediate 37% tax rate not even including Employers NICs while on basic rate tax.
How would the Indian authorities find out your wife has taken a British passport? Do we have some sort of data sharing agreement with them we don't with the Chinese?
EXC: Tory MPs on Lib Dem defection watch
There have been informal discussions with Tory MPs on the 'left' uneasy with the party shifting further to the right to combat the threat of Reform
https://x.com/harriet_symonds/status/1933109878664679664
And as for the 90/180 arrangements, this is what Boris demanded when he required Britain be tret as a 3rd country. I am confused by some of the people now complaining about Labour trying to solve the Tory mess!
(We don't want that sort of alternative fact on here!)
Hopefully in a few years time, when people get over the fact that its happened and the world hasn't ended, it can be democratically liberalised much further.
Hopefully one day we'll look back and question how we ever had a situation where people in suffering weren't allowed to end their pain as humanely as we treat beloved pets.
Long way to go
So enter and leave India on your Indian passport. Enter and leave UK on your U.K. passport.
In the UK, if you are a citizen, your other nationalities are legally irrelevant - you have no right of consular access etc to another country. You are just a U.K. citizens for all purposes.
Nearly every country does the same for dual nationals.
If you are of "Indian origin" you can apply for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) which is in effect a life-long visa.
If it is between parked cars and there is not room then aiui they should stop if they need to straddle the centre point of the road. If in my car I am ostentatious about doing this. If on my cycle I would be assertive (ie centre of lane or stronger), but not to the point of taking too many chances (eg I would leave Audis, BMWs and van men alone usually). If it is a whole line of cars it is tricky.
A stronger position means there's a possible escape to the left.
But on this there are a few ambiguities. Eg there is some language (Rule 163) around passing cycles in the HWC as "overtake", and around horses it is "pass". The latter is more clearly both directions; the former (and the difference) is unhelpfully confusing. If you get into cam-reporting, there are also varying policies - Lancs just won't touch close passing reports for neforcement; others will do.
The best way is Ashley Neal's slogan: "make it a non-event", which is planning ahead and slowing down or being very clear of your intention far enough in advance so that the car has time to react. That's about road position and body language, and even perhaps waving them through if you have time.
I hope that's helpful. Ashley has a video on this question here (he has lots of others too), where he discusses with Travis & Sigrid (the cat) an experience in London. Not totally clear cut, but highlights the considerations well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDqn2ckgPVw
But having said that, it is tempered as ever by "what happens if they don't stop".
When the Conservatives were in Government in 2010 satisfaction with the NHS was at an all time high. 15 years later under a Labour Government it's never been worse.
"Or even the range of events" is a pretty silly qualification, as one could create a range which encompasses an enormous number of possibilities.
Ultimately, the very slim benefits of Indian citizen vs. NRI status don't make it worth the risk and hassle.
The aviation industry has a sad history of "blame the pilots...". I wish 'experts' did not get into the same habit...
Last thing I want to do is start dobbing in my neighbours but I’m getting the right hunp over the lack of consideration. I’d rather they were aware than shook down for money
Ref 32 Con 21 Lab 21 LD 14 Green 8 SNP 2
Starmer loses as best PM to Kemi by 4 and Farage by 7 and Kemi vs Farage is 38 v 40
*subsamples klaxon and alert* some hilarity in Wales with Labour and Plaid trailing both Ref by miles (42%!) And tories lol. Labour on 13% in Scotland. Labour big lead with the youth but utterly gubbed with anyone out of nappies - doing best in London and East Mids, Tories lead in the SE, its the Reform show elsewhere
I inherited a business from my Dad. He'd built it from scratch so was sitting on a large unrealised gain. I inherited it with zero CGT and zero IHT. Happy as that made me, it seems unfair.
CGT is only payable on disposal, so getting rid of rebasing doesn't trigger sob stories about family farms having to be sold to meet a tax bill on death, but it does disincentivise the use of farmland to shelter "passive" wealth and pass it to the next generation.
(With inflation likely to be more of an issue in the next 20 years than it was in the last 20, we also need to look at reintroducing indexation for CGT, especially if the headline rate is going up any further, but that is a separate point).
Mum still has her Indian passport, but has a new-fangled "E-visa" (Indefinite Leave). Due to teething problems with the system when trying to "link" to a new passport, I've told her to hang onto her much older passport with paper Visa sticker AND her BRP (Biometric Residence Permit) just in case!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgoZrOyI99c
Labour are spending untold billions on the NHS, and another 29 billion yesterday and yet it remains a bottomless pit for money
Social care needs sorting, but that has been kicked into the long grass
And as you know, Wales NHS is in a shocking state under Welsh Labour
Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57749-y
The Starshot Breakthrough Initiative aims to send gram-scale microchip probes to Alpha Centauri within 20 years, propelled by laser-driven lightsails at a fifth of light speed. This mission demands innovative lightsail materials with meter-scale dimensions, nanoscale thickness, and billions of nanoscale holes for enhanced reflectivity and reduced mass. Unlike the microchip payload, lightsail fabrication requires breakthroughs in optics, materials science, and structural engineering. Our study uses neural topology optimization, revealing a novel pentagonal lattice-based photonic crystal (PhC) reflector. The optimized designs significantly lower the acceleration times and, thereby, launch cost. Crucially, they also enabled orders-of-magnitude fabrication cost reduction. We fabricated a 60 × 60 mm2, 200 nm thick reflector with over a billion nanoscale features, achieving a 9000-fold cost reduction per m2. This represents the highest aspect ratio nanophotonic element to date. While stringent requirements remain for lightsails, scalable, cost-effective nanophotonics present promising solutions for next-generation space exploration.
[FACE PALM]
And social care is 'too difficult'. For the same reason.
Mum falls into that category.
You cannot combine conservative and reform votes
@irritatedllama.bsky.social
Irene Davidson, Reform’s candidate for the Blundellsands ward in the upcoming by election in Liverpool.
https://bsky.app/profile/irritatedllama.bsky.social/post/3lrfmw4mrvk2n
And add, they wouldn't be able to return to the UK on their Chinese or Indian passports.
Caveat emptor: An applicant to the BPC only, and seen as Liberal favourable in its native Australia.
I think they are trapping potential candidates by propping up a big cardboard box with a pack of cigs with a scratchcard taped to it as bait.
Remember how Boeing and others tried to blame the pilots for the 737 Max crashes. And yes, the pilots made mistakes. But the major causal factors were down to Boeing.
Even if the pilots make mistakes, it becomes critically important to understand *why* they made those mistakes.
(For other readers, the RAT is a small turbine/generator that can be deployed to generate electrical power from the airflow over the fuselage.)
Mind you I am always relieved when I pull out the safety card and the aircraft code starts with an "A" . I am genuinely cheered.
You could play with a real or fake helmet cam which would be seen from the front.
I think the other thing that does make a difference is assertiveness eg taking primary in pinch points and so on, enough in advance so they have time to react.
Personally, I have recently (last 12 months) been more focused on being assertive on pedestrian priority at side road and roundabout entrances, and I think that one is getting through.
Plan B is to become an anti-barrier activist and clear out all your local off road routes so you can go where they cannot get at you
Hmm.
Anyway, as others have said, there are reasons that Reform voters are not backing the Tories and vice versa; they are not two versions of the same thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549
Thank u both
The Noom, my friends, The Noom
Noom is a diet app:
https://www.noom.com