If you need a fixed blade:

11quid

If you need a folder:

7quid
Treat the handle to prevent it swelling when wet.

Put it this way:

Do you need a Rolls-Royce for driving down to the local shops? Do you need a Rolex for telling the time?

Buy a reasonable axe with a Hickory handle,
sharpen it properly and it will see you right

Anyone else find Chris Hawkins rather, umm, dull and weak..?

Yes. I'm not quite sure how Chris Hawkins got the gig as he's not a typical DJ type -Although he's not in-yer-face like George Lamb. I only hear the last 10 minutes of the early breakfast show which doesn't seem to involve foghorns and lots of dodgy patois and Jamaican dance-hall.

I found him preferable to Jo Whiley/Sara Cox

Faint praise…..

I'm not sure I'd risk it with a Mondeo TDCI, but diesels with other fuel systems seem to cope ok.

George Lamb is a complete knob who just didn't fit with the rest of the station.

Exactly

It was almost as if they were trying to change the direction of 6Music by bringing in somebody fairly 'Radio1' during the day -maybe to boost the listener numbers, an odd move as people could very easily just listen to the original Radio 1 FM for that and I can only assume that he wasn't actually that popular.

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!

Good luck to him on a show I won't be listening to.

I can listen to the radio again when travelling by car in the late morning. R2's offering at that time is dull and I can only take so much Woman's Hour….

I like Cerys' music and was pleasantly surprised when her was really good.

I like Lauren Laverne too.

Steve Wright seemed good when I was 12 in 1989… Now just embarrassing.

give Liza Tarbuck the gig.

ps. Russell Brand = Emperor's New Clothes
Keep him off the air waves.

If you're over 25 what are you listening to R1 for anyway?
You don't need to listen to R2.

6Music via DAB, Freeview or WWW is far, far superior

I'd forgotten to mention that Liza Tarbuck is great too when she does R2.

Emma Forbes on R2 is also surprisingly good (wasn't that great on Live & Kicking back in the day), although Alan Carr is annoying.

George Lamb is intelligent and quick, but too irritating and is there less music on his show or does it just feel that way?

as a 32yo man of the world:

Radio 1 is rubbish

Radio 2:
Radcliffe & Maconie, Jonathan Ross and Trevor Nelson are good.
Chris Evans is so-so
Most other stuff is for old people(The Organist Entertains who exactly???) or just 20 years out of date like Steve Wright.

6Music:
Mark Riley
Cerys Matthews
Adam & Joe
Shaun Keaveny
Craig Charles
Huey
Stephen Merchant
etc. etc. all very good.

Steve Lamacq may be enthusiastic, but I've never been keen.

George Lamb is worse than Moyles.

– A Pure Highway DAB car radio was a good investment, apart from when George Lamb is on.

Radio 4 makes me proud to be British.

The disappointing thing is that showing someone to be a nasty, bigoted individual who doesn't believe in fairness for all doesn't necessarily put some people off.

I'm as British as anyone, but the representatives of the BNP do not speak for me.

As I'd said earlier, It would have been better to allow BNP man to give his views on day-to-day issues after the initial discrediting of him. Having said that, a lot of "repressed-and-hard-done-to-because-the-Daily Mail-and-Express-tell-them-they-are' white British people would probably like the sound of his policies, no matter how unfeasible or unpleasant :roll:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I pity the poor, hard-done-to, genocide victim :lol:

Had he shone as a great orator and potential Fuhrer for the nation I doubt that he'd have been complaining.

From last night's QT programme it appeared the Nick Griffin is now "unsure" as to why he thought (or was it actually why he said in front of an audience?) those things. …those things that would keep him out of mainstream public life and leave him open to prosecution.

'Anglo-Saxons' came from Germany

'Normans' came from Normandy

'Celts' come from just about everywhere dependent upon who you talk to!

It's all arbitrary, ridiculous and utterly pointless to try to produce a hierarchy of peoples' rights based on where their ancestors lived.

I found that one line really chilling – that any person could think that of others, and that's irrespective of whether thet're black, white, pink, yellow or blue.

I don't think that anybody is disputing that. Bigotry by any group is unpleasant.

Fair-minded people believe in equal opportunity -by definition, that means for everybody!

Please do not get hung up on this line. My point is simply that in a country where the government is over-whelmingly dominated by white men the concerns of white men that they are a victimised minority are a trifle loopy.

I realised what you meant, but it could be taken both ways and could almost excuse the white supremacists.

I agree about the loopiness!

The only possible defining characteristic that one could say with any form of certainty would be the colour of their skin.

So, for example, if a recently-arrived Swede who looks like a British person, has adopted a convincing British accent and a British name lives in the UK, do the "send them all home" crowd accept this immigrant and allow them to stay or send them back to Stockholm?

I was waiting for that, after I pressed post.
:-)
He's presumably not gay, but has skin of a darker tone than the typical anglo-saxon, being of mixed-race.

Pointing out that actually the grip of the white British on Britain is immensely strong and challenging the myths that white people are systematically discriminated against and the government is run by blacks and gays is more to the point.

Indeed. As I said above, I do enjoy asking people when they were actually last discriminated against.

I take slight issue with what you say a the end though. If government were "run by blacks and gays" would that be a bad thing anyway? -Barak Obama anyone? (EDIT: presumably not gay, but of mixed-race!)

I am pleased to live in a tolerant country and believe that people should have equal opportunities. I would prefer that the UK was a totally secular country with all religion given fewer concessions, although this doesn't concern me too much in the overall scheme of things. I do not feel that I am superior because my family happened to be peasants in Lancashire for many generations rather than peasants in Nigeria. There are limits on the number of people that can live in a land, but the UK is not the soft-touch for immigrants that people seem to think it is.

Aristotle, are you actually the real Aristotle?

shhhhh, I'm masquerading as an Anglo-saxon!

And to think the postal strike wasn't mentioned once on QT.

Maybe everyone agrees that the posties have shot themselves in the foot?

I'm late to the debate, but…

My impressions were:

Nick Griffin is not a good public speaker and looked a little frightened of the mob -as if he expected the polite, well-spoken, mixed-ethnicity audience to storm the stage and kill him?
(-I'm ashamed to say that I felt a sort of hatred towards the disgusting man, despite me being a fair-haired, blue-eyed 'anglo-saxon' as far back as anybody has found so far)

I was expecting all kinds of rabble-rousing, carefully chosen statistics from BNP man, but he hid behind vague notions and looked like a fool. I'd have felt embarrassed if I was a BNP sympathiser.

His claims of being mis-quoted made me chuckle. He would deny the innocuous wording of the quote, but not the nasty, odious sentiment…

They should have asked for his policies on issues that are relevant to the day-to-day running of the country, and not just the fairly vacuous ones involving people with dark skin being 'sent home'

Baroness Warsi is a likeable woman and a good example, for those people that need one, of a muslim who is not a fundamentalist nutter. (incidentally, I don't like religion, but I don't hate religious followers)

Jack Straw started reasonably but got bogged down and tangled in his party line. I prefer him when he says what he thinks, but does so less these days.

Bonnie Greer made some good points and managed to undermine and patronise BNP man with gentle charm.

Unfortunately, although I think that educated, thoughtful people would laugh at his simplistic, baseless party, BNP 'followers' would probably not have been swayed in their views.

Somebody said to me yesterday,
"Some of what the BNP say is right. If you're white, you don't get anything in this country anymore"

I replied by asking when was the last time that this gainfully employed, home-owning in a nice area, white bloke last felt discriminated against.
"er…… well, not me personally" was the reply.

Exactly.

I heard this headline on the radio this morning

My immediate -prejudiced- thoughts were:

-More children and more of them playing out on the streets in less-well-off areas.

-The better-off kids may have more 'comfortable' lives, travelling everywhere by car and sitting in the house on electronic games

———————————————————————

To contribute to the wider debate, we're probably better off than a lot of people, but live in a 'poor area' (albeit in a reasonably nice road) and will be moving house as soon as possible. The amount of litter and general untidiness is very unpleasant, a lot of the locals are rough and I wouldn't willingly send my kids to the local schools.

Yes, people like me contribute to the ghetto-isation of an area, but I'd rather that my family lived somewhere nice if possible

My grandparents all grew up in inner-city slum housing that has since been demoolised, but weren't thick, had a bit of pride in themselves and my family are now not paupers.

A lot of people have been helped out out of squlaor in recent years. It is complex and some people have problems that are difficult to rectify, but the phrase,
"You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" comes to mind when it comes to helping some of the 'less-advantaged'.

If there's one thing that capures the zeitgeist of UK culture it's her :roll:

Everything I would not want in a woman, all in one package.

It must take some work to come up with a ludicrous "story" about her/her family/mates for the Daily Star every morning.

Barbour Bushman:

Härkila Åsele Jacket 177613

Auto wipers and auto lights are unnecessary and offer no advantage over manual operation, as they are not subtle/fuzzy enough in their operation.

My eye/brain/hand respond more quickly than the 'auto' function on either.

Mine are used manually and I wouldn't actively look for a used car with either those or electrically heated/operated seats.

Good Modern Features:
ABS
Heated Screens (for icy days)
A/C (for de-mist -and occasionally cooling)
Trip Computers (trip distance, fuel consumption and approximate distance remaining quite useful, average speed not…)
Power Steering

Do you need a compressible loft jacket for dog walking in the temperate UK? Isn't waterproof and quilted better? Something waxed cotton like a Barbour?

People not bothering to indicate (or look to decide if it is a good idea) before carrying out a manoeuvre is a symptom of the feeling of safety and isolation created by many of these features.

You wouldn't switch lanes in front of an car/truck bearing down on you at 20+ mph if you felt in any danger of being shunted or spun into the other traffic resulting in death or injury, and yet people do it…. :roll:

how is this 'progress'? – what was so bad about a 'normal' handbrake?

An automatic handbrake means no requirement for including and fitting a mechanical linkage. The software can be included within the car's control system. From a driver's point of view, I'd prefer to have a manually operated hand-brake. Of course, a handle could be fitted which mimics a conventional hand-brake.

ABS, ESP, HBA are surely a good thing for most people, most of the time as drivers don't need a cool head and considerable skill in a panic situation

I agree that ABS is a good thing, although most people wouldn't know what it did. Having said that, those people probably wouldn't know that they couldn't normally steer with the with the brakes locked anyway… :)

I've had ESP, but found it intrusive and have since had much more powerful cars without it, suffering no problems.

I'm not actually sure of the benefit of brake-assist. I've had cars with and without it (better braking feel), but not noticed any positive difference, which is not to say that it's a bad thing.

As for Sat-Nav, I visit many different sites around the UK and have driven in various countries without one. I have used a borrowed Sat Nav, but it caused an argument when my passenger hadn't set it properly and I queried the route, so we switched it off and managed perfectly fine for the rest of the time around France. I do like to think about routes beforehand and enjoy navigating myself about though.

It might have been beneficial when driving through the chaos of South American cities, but Sat Nav can't warn you about 100s of maniacs driving and walking at you.

Often the washer nozzles are heated, which is pointless as the bottle usually isn't and there is no trace heating on the hoses. As a result, Fords are well known for having hose connectors pop off in frozen conditions.

Drivers Electric window -What's wrong with winding it by hand? (the passenger electric window is useful)

Seatbelt warning beep -unnecessary, I've never forgotten to wear a seatbelt.

Sat Nav -who needs really one?

Parking sensors -We've managed for years without and bumpers should withstand a small impact if you're that terrible a driver.

Auto switching lights -mine has this, but I never use it.

Auto windscreen wipers -often at the wrong speed or lag too far behind the conditions.

Heated seats -useful, but really not at all necessary.

Woodsman, your business looks good.
Are you a coach-builder by trade?

Mech eng turned project manager. Not happy. Wish I thought more about the sort of thing I liked doing rather than the – "I'm ok at maths and physics so will do eng degree and see where that takes me"

That is what I did and do…

Thing is I'm now mid-ish 30's and I still don't know what I want to do. Prefer to be outdoors and dealing with people who are enjoying themselves. Also want a "making a difference" element to my job.

That is also my situation and exactly what I think

Aristotle – your story sounds familiar.

Separated at birth?!!? ;)

My one regret in life is that I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do as a job.

Inquisitive, enthusiastic, did well at school, went to uni, didn't do quite so well and just fell into(admittedly reasonably paying) job(s) that I didn't enjoy. 10 years on and I've not found my niche at all.

One day I'm hoping to wake up with the answer in my mind….

Don't be deluded. a fast bike does not make you a fast rider. Skills make you a fast rider. A good rider on a 40 bhp bike will always leave an average rider on a 100bhp bike behind.

You're just so wrong, Mr TJ!

In the world of motorbiking in the UK, he who has the most powerful, most race-bred, most hardcore machine wins. The riding is, at the very most, secondary as a huge proportion of bikes are hardly used, and those that are a rarely used as a means of getting from A to B.

Tart!
Twisty roads are where it's at.