Interesting to hear the thoughts about voting Green. I’m thinking along similar lines having never been a floating voter ever before.

The mess we’ve made of carelessly using limited resources regardless of the long term consequences is an economic issue as much as environmental – it’s no longer a marginal/idealistic issue with a natural left-of-centre positioning.

e.g. I wonder how much the flooding in the last 10 years has cost individuals, business and insurance companies? How much is it going to cost to keep central London from being flooded? As an island nation with lots of opportunity to develop wind and tidal solutions, how can we develop new sources of revenue from the move to renewables by selling products and expertise to other countries?

Untrue, polls indicate that it is his (?) economic policies (sic) that are the main problem.

I stand corrected – my view is based on general impression from when he gets mentioned in the news rather than poll data. I don’t like him or agree with his policies but still despair at how often the focus is on his image rather than his policies – I suspect these aspects are easier news stories to write…

Why do you think we end up with weak government that doesn’t represent or feel any need to represent the people in the country?

Totally agree. But how can you vote Labour after their refusal to admit the mistakes they made pre-crisis and the Tories (supposedly safe hands with the economy) are using house price rises and more debt to disguise an economy which is struggling and that they haves few realistic plans for sorting it… (as opposed to being honest and saying that frankly things are hard and there’s no short term fix

We do live in a democracy, but it’s not a very effective one. FPTP is not great, but the biggest problem is that the electorate don’t live up to their side of the deal. For democracy to work, the electorate have to actually put some effort into understanding the issues and the process. Most people don’t.

I agree with this – we the electorate get the politicians we deserve. e.g. if we reject Miliband because he looks like Wallace and doesn’t do public speaking too well, and looks odd in photos, then frankly we deserve shallow, PR-minded politicians. If we reject him because we don’t agree with his policies then fair enough, but right now that’s not the reason people give for not wanting to vote for him.

The main challenge now is where do you go to understand the issues properly – party manifestos are just advertising, not facts, mainstream press (broadsheets and tabloids) are just mouthpieces for their proprietors and utterly biased. Just looking at the language used about house prices rising and falling shows you how manipulative they are.

Tbh I find I learn more from reading the comments sections of news stories than the stories themselves, you get a real feel for how biased the reporting is.
Combining that with my own research for hard stats and data seems to be the only way to get a perspective on anything but that takes up a lot of time, which few people have…

As it happens, STW is a good place to get an idea of all the different perspectives too, even if some of them are mistaken… 🙂

It’s going to be very messy. Expect all kinds of games and tricks from all parties trying to win an election which none of them have a chance of winning cos no-one thinks they’re fit to govern or has any honest idea how to get the economy out of the insane amount of debt we’re in…
For the first time in my life I’m not sure I’ll vote.
I suspect a lot of people share the same view, which means whatever government we end up with will be a weak, partisan mess without any real mandate from the UK electorate.
It won’t do our global standing or our economy any good, mind… the effects will be everyday and real, well beyond Westminster Village.
With luck, the uncertainty will keep Gideon too busy to think of any more damn fool tricks with the housing market…

I love down jackets – really cosy when it’s cold. But only needed/appropriate really for when you’re standing/sitting around and not generating much heat e.g. wild camping/belaying in winter.
That said, I wore my North Face Nuptse most days on a trekking trip in Nepal – but we were up above 5000m and not really moving too fast!
It’s had loads of use and is now 10 years old and still going strong so from a value for money point of view I’d say it’s been well worth it.
I find synthetic’s not as warm, but for most UK temps and if you’re moving then that’s prob more appropriate, esp as UK tends to be more damp as well!

IIRC I didn’t get any of the bugs last winter – and I was riding in twice a week – got me out of the public transport system, kept my immune system strong and got me lots of Vitamin D during the dark season.

I have a bottle of alcohol hand rub which I use before I touch my keyboard when I get to work, to save transferring any bugs from touching stuff everyone else has touched to something I’ll be touching all day.

I think eating super-healthy when the bugs are flying around, lots of sleep and some echinacea probably help.

General principle of keeping your immune system strong and protect yourself from the bugs of others seems to make sense.

No idea if any of this is scientific!

You did good OP, ignore the sanctimonious pricks on here who just want to pick you up on something.

I don’t get this comment at all… Primary position is the recommended position to make yourself visible – it’s in John Franklin’s Cyclecraft, Bikeability training, British Cycling and CTC recommend it… The OP just got hit, but luckily wasn’t seriously hurt, and riding primary could have prevented the whole thing. I can’t see how bringing the subject into the thread is sanctimonious? No-one’s criticising him…

Glad you’re ok OP.
As Scotroutes says, primary position is recommended for a reason 🙂

I also look after my stuff and get upset if someone else doesn’t respect that – and as getting inside a car seems to do something very odd to some people’s minds it makes sense not to have a car you care about.

Whether people are incompetent, stupid or vindictive, it makes sense to not buy a too nice car IMO.

+1 for Spinnaker tape – basically it’s ripstop tape.
Don’t Rab do repairs for a fee?

I don’t know about Paddington, as it’s North of the Parks. Practically bandit country. The only trains that come in there are from the grim wastelands of the Midlands.

The grim West, actually!

OP: come out of the Bakerloo line entrance, rather than the main station and turn left so the station is on your left hand side. After 50 yards there’s a Boris bike rack in the road on the right. If that one’s empty, keep walking up until you get to the road which goes to St Mary’s and there’ll be another, bigger rack there…

I walk past there every day and they’re rarely both empty

How does an investor simply paying the asking price for a property push up prices?

This:

I’ve got friends who have in excess of a 100 properties each

1. If a property is bought BTL it reduces the supply available for sale – this guy’s friends owning 99 more properties than they need means 99 families/couples can’t buy those houses to live in as there’s fewer for sale. This leads to an artificial shortage of supply, which pushes up prices…

2. For me to buy a house to live in I have to put down a deposit and take out a repayment mortgage, the amount being limited by my salary. BTL can be done interest-only and is paid off by the rent, not by any earnings the landlord has. This makes it massively harder for the private owner to put up as much as the landlord can. Too much money chasing too few goods = inflation.
How else does anyone think house prices are so far above the 4x salary historical norm?

Mind you, BTL will be screwed when interest rates go up and the inevitable crash comes…although, of course, interest rates will never go up from emergency level/historical lows and the housing market will never crash…

BTL is a mug’s game – too many false assumptions about interest rates and house prices. The economy’s hardly in a predictably safe place is it?

A pension’s a way better bet: if I stick £1000 into my pension, I get another £250 in addition straight away as tax relief – and that’s before any investment returns. I’d like to see a BTL portfolio which is outperforming a 25% guaranteed increase…

Got a big ride with the stiffbackroadie club tomorrow – 9am start…

I’m happy to stand up and count as a hand wringer…
Stick your money somewhere else and let someone who needs a home for security and somewhere to bring up their family buy it instead. For those of us who’d like to buy a place to live, BTL is an unmitigated disaster, pushing prices totally out of reach…

More rationally, you don’t honestly think BTL is going to work out well when the inevitable house price crash comes – which may have already begun in London when you look at the discounts on asking prices that are coming through. You’ll not get the capital gain you’re expecting, and this is ignoring that interest rates will go up at some point which will increase your cost of borrowing significantly…
Don’t forget rents are decreasing at the moment as well…
I wouldn’t buy an ex-rental either – much less likely to be in a good state than somewhere that someone’s had as their own home so it’ll be hard to get rid of when you decide to.

I bought a cheap one and it cracked so I reckon it’s worth forking out £40 for The Grid, which seems to be the most recommended.
You’ll find out very quickly that you have tight spots you never knew you had. but after a few weeks of carrying on despite the pain, you do soften up so I’d recommend it. Where it does really hurt you can still do the exercise but take a bit of weight off the roller and keep gradually at it until you can do it without the pain.
Really good for keeping DOMS at bay and allowing you to do a hard effort again the next day if you’re in serious training

Interest rates going up?

I’m not sure I’d believe anything in The Telegraph but the sources they name like UBS and Credit Suisse should know what they’re talking about.

IMO mortgage rates are low at the moment because houses are unaffordable to most and the Bank of England tightened up lending criteria which means no-one’s applying for mortgages. There’s more than a few people expecting a crash and so they’re holding on for a few months rather than buying now.

In order to try and meet their lending targets in the face of falling customer demand, banks dropped their interest rates – the same as retailers drop prices when consumers aren’t buying…

I’m essentially a stiffback roadie these days – MTB maybe 4-6 times a year instead of every weekend as I used to. I’ve kept my Soul though, and when I do ride the MTB I know why I love it and wish I did it more. As above, good to have a mix of bikes and just follow your nose depending on what you prefer to do on any given day…
If you have the space, keep it so it’s there when you fancy

One would assume it’s for non-Northern European climates…

Or for people too poor to pay their gentleman’s Gentleman to ride alongside with a spray bottle

Def get the footstool with them. Awesomely comfortable.

Daily disposables here. Been using them for years without any problems at all including a 4 week trekking/climbing trip to Nepal…

Social media will seem quaint… as will smartphones.
Possible that English as the dominant global language will seem old-fashioned. ‘What you weren’t all taught Mandarin?’
Buying pre-manufactured goods of all kinds from a central maker somewhere the other side of the world, rather than downloading the design and printing it yourself or popping down to your community print shop.
Being able to take the train to London instead of going to see it in a tourist submarine after global warming’s done it’s thing 🙂

🙂

I think Carney is pushing to get rates up a small amount sooner rather than later. BoE have said the longer they wait until they push rates up, the bigger the shock as they’ll have to make a bigger hike.

BoE published a report last week saying their calculations showed that most mortgage holders will be able to survive a rate rise.
He made some other comment about not assuming there wouldn’t be a rate hike early next year
The stress tests this week showed the main banks will be able to deal with any bad debt if the housing market drops.
He’ll be trying to stop the housing market going pop (if it hasn’t already in London) and rates are a key tool.
I suspect all the calculations are showing that when rates do go up, there won’t be any significant systemic risk.
I suspect all the stories from BoE about rates going up have been to encourage people onto fixed rates. This means they’ll survive a rise in the base rate.
Keeping rates so low is encouraging misallocation of risk which could create another bust

All of which makes it more likely rates will go up than not.

disc brakes on road bike are very dangerous if you crash as they could CUT your hand right off,

Is there any evidence of MTB discs doing this? They’ve been in mass usage for 15+ years now so if there was a risk, I’m sure there’d be plenty of empirical evidence.

Did they suggest why discs on a road bike could be any more of a risk than MTB? You fall off MTB more often than road so I would have thought any risk of contact would be lower on road…

chocolate and biscuits. Even worse when combined, like dark chocolate digestives cos I can pretend they’re healthy as they’re dark chocolate 😯
Bloody good job I’m also addicted to endurance sports!

+1 for Tyler Hamilton plus David Millar’s if you want some cycling reading. Both are eye openers whatever you feel about them as individuals.
+1 for Spike Milligan’s series too – you’ll cry with laughter.
The Villain is good too.
I love Morrissey as a songwriter and his books gives you a good insight into the points he makes with his songs but it’s not the best read ever tbh

What does your client expect you to have? The answer may well depend on your industry.
I was asked to get myself public liabilty and professional indemnity. Went to Hiscox. Pricing was good although their service could have been better…
Good luck with the contracting, best thing I ever did, work-wise… perm jobs are so 20th century 🙂

A few thoughts:
1. They sound like gits and you don’t want gits in your life, certainly not ones who have any power over you…
2. If you have a Union rep, get them involved
3. As said above – if they’re coming out with questionable, bullying or otherwise unacceptable comments, get them written down. Even if it seems a bit unnecessary, it’s builds up a picture of inappropriate bevhaviour which you can use if necessary to prove your point. I’ve done this in the past and just emailed it to my hotmail address at the end of every day so I have a safe copy…
4. Life’s too short. I’ve left without a job to go to in the past and come out far better off… better job, better money and greater sense of confidence and self-respect

I cut a big toenail too short years ago and so it starting growing back into the skin – mate advised me to stick some cotton wool underneath to lift it up and out. Sorted it out within weeks – whereas several sessions with the podiatrist carving out big chunks of nail did nothing…

I like a bit of wild camping but I wouldn’t want a bunch of strangers pitching a tent in my back garden either – that’s why it’s illegal – it’s usually someone else’s land.

Like a lot of things, wild camping works when commonsense and respect are applied, but these behaviours aren’t widely distributed amongst the population at large…

So best to keep it illegal so only a committed few will do it, and keep it to a level where it’ll do no harm.

Most behaviours are ok for society at large until the unwashed, mindless masses get involved 😀

Round my way, sales of them appear to have fallen… 😯

I know this has been done a thousand times but:
Intelligence/commonsense isn’t evenly distributed across the population, and neither is observational ability/willingness or even skill at driving/cycling. That’s why we lose around 1700 people a year and 20k+ are seriously injured on the roads. Some people can’t even manage to walk safely!

In the meantime – drive and cycle with your eyes open… do you want to end someone’s life?

When I did my Bikeability (in Paddington) the instructor made a great suggestion about riding safely in London – pick your route.
Some junctions are designed very poorly – find a route away from them and you manage a lot of the risk out of your journey.
I now avoid Parliament Square and Westminster by going over Lambeth Bridge and round the back through Victoria to Buck House… much more peaceful…

FWIW when I was commuting from Bromley earlier this year the aggression from drivers was far worse there than it is in central London.

Head For The Hills are excellent – good stock, great service.

My brother. Some point in the mid-eighties

Helter Skelter still seems to be the best place in Frodsham for food.

Given this:

“It’s a crisis about excess leverage pure and simple – the rest ie growth, fiscal positions, deficits, debts, bankers etc are symptoms not causes”

Then this story in the Telegraph on UK personal debt levels is terrifying:

Household debt to increase beyond 2008 levels

It suggests the government really have no idea how to pay down the debt without a massive impact on living standards – so they’re just replacing the lack of wage growth and investment growth with more personal debt.

I can’t see quite how this can end well at all.

They’re not actually devolving power, they’re devolving blame

A little cyncial this early in the morning ! Currently it’s too easy for politicians in the regions to blame it all on Westminster, this addresses the problem.

Well to be fair to Binners, that’s exactly what the writers at The Economist have been saying since the push for regional devolution. There’s more cuts to come. By the time the voters feel the pain the regional devolution will be in place so the local government will get the blame. A few sensible people will point out that it was the central government who initiated the cuts back in 2015 but the media will ignore this and voters won’t realise the game that was played and will follow with their anger accordingly.

I’ve voted Conservative all my life but the more I see the games that the current lot are up to the more I think there’s no way I want to reward them by giving them a vote next year… it’s really nasty stuff and very cynical with it…

If they admitted the problem was systemic and difficult to solve and would take a long time to straighten out, I’d trust them, but this nasty pretence that they have an answer whilst messing about with credit and house prices to give an illusion of wealth is just utter lies

There’s more than a few commentators suggesting this will push prices up as buyers think they have a little more money to spend, and sellers think ‘oh, buyers have a little more spare cash’.

Adding more money into a market which has been blown out of all proportion from loose lending (oversupply of money), which also means a lower tax take when the tax take is already too low, is the gesture of either a complete economic idiot or an electioneeering politician desperate for voters to feel good at a time of static living standards and very low economic growth.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide. All you need to know is that house price growth remained stalled again in November…

and I might have got a couple of grand extra assuming the buyers had a budget which included stamp duty.

Sadly, I suspect plenty of sellers will think like this…