As a member of our local wildlife trust, I was seriously considering sending gifts out of ‘adopting a beaver’ to all family members. It’s a thoughtful, useful gift and most people nowadays just have too much stuff.

A friend of my wife’s did that for her birthday once. Only it was an Otter. We went to look at it, at a nature reserve down in Barnes. It was a nice day out. The next year, she did the same with a rabbit. We went to see it (Vauxhall City Farm) but it wasn’t there. Probably had died. The yea rafter that was some other creature in Norfolk. We never got around to taking a trip there. She didn’t bother the following year…

The main problem with typical such analyses of ‘wealth’, is that they routinely tend to focus on figures alone, and ignore other factors. The UK is declining not only in terms of ‘GDP’, but also in terms of overall health, educational attainment, literacy, skills, stuff like that. Our NHS is crippled, our educational system is in steep decline, we’re not training people to do much beyond what serves financial interests, and ignoring increasing numbers of people who need support.

Yeah, cos it’s only the proles who spend loads at Xmas, isn’t it!

Ok; enjoy your expensive Balenciaga tat then.

The whole start it in November nonsense spoils it for me though

I quite like the pretty lights and that. The West End can look amazing at this time of year. I do like some of the traditional shop displays too. Nothing wrong with a bit of creativity. It’s the rampant consumerism that I can’t stand.

‘Happy Non-Denominational Winterfest’ sounds ok to me. We can have Xmas, Channukah, Eid and Diwali all rolled into one! Much better range of food as well.

I think their plan currently is have an independent board to “Plan workforce projections” (whatever that actually means) I don’t know if that means pay though 🤷‍♀️

So no, then. Ok.

That’s simple economic migrancy though, isn’t it? Plenty of UK trained nurses have left to go and work overseas (for better pay and lifestyle), and the vast majority of ones we see coming to work here, are from much poorer countries. So isn’t at least part of the problem that our own nurses aren’t paid enough? Is Labour committed to increasing nurses pay and conditions?

some…head…purple…saber

Ban this Sith flick!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-60524576

But

One of the carribean islands had to shut its only ITU as 80% of the ITU nurses working on the island were recruited to work in the UK.

I didn’t know Zimbabwe had moved to the Caribbean. Perhaps that was because of hyperinflation…

He was found guilty of electoral fraud. That doesn’t happen in a criminal court, it’s for the Electoral Commission. Judge led. Belittle the evidence and the findings if you want, but it wasn’t just a case that “the Labour right tried smearing” him, the election result was overturned and a five year ban handed down by the commission.

And yet here he is, back bloodying Labour’s nose for a second time. And showing them how to run a borough. That was a Labour stronghold. That they lost. To a ‘corrupt’ politician.

Tell me; what are Labour doing wrong, there?

Ooh dear, naughty naughty…

Oopsie daisy…

Mainky because Hayden Christiansen appears to be hewn from solid teak, something his appearance in Obi Wan did little to dispel?

He did burn quite well, didn’t he?

I’ve never thought Ewan McGregor was much cop as Obi Wan either, tbh. I’m not sure that’s entirely his fault though.

You mean he was found guilty of electoral fraud?

He wasn’t. No criminal charges against him were ever brought. The case against him seemed to consist of allegations and smears, and more than a whiff of racism, and stuff like ‘he gave out snacks to people to win their votes!’. Very little actual ‘evidence’, and none that could be linked directly to him. Anyway; he’s back, and doing a much better job than his Labour predecessor, by all accounts. EMA, bursaries, the only borough in the UK to provide free home care for elderly residents, the largest affordable home building project of any borough in the UK, free school meals for all primary school kids, one of the only areas to actually increase police officer numbers. Not bad for a ‘corrupt’ politician…

Hmm. Depends.

Oh yeah, ‘cos what we really need right now is to banish completely any messages or feelings of hope, goodwill or bonhomie, and pour scorn on anyone that might be gearing up to enjoy an age old festival, whatever their motives.

No, I just think that the exploitation of such for commercial purposes, nothing more, is what increasing numbers of people are finding really offensive. I’m all for some bright coloured displays during a dull, dark, grey time of year. But doing so just to sell shit we don’t need, has nothing to do with ‘any messages or feelings of hope, goodwill or bonhomie’. Blue Peter teaching us how to make a pretty festive display out of some old coat hangers is wonderful; shops full of ‘BUY STUFF IT’S XMAS!’ really isn’t.

Enjoy your cheap Iceland xmas goodies.

yes but still way below acceptable standards “in terms of acting, dialogue, characters, and the massive over-reliance on CGI” I would say. “Let’s go Chrome Dome”. FFS, absolute drivel 😂

Granted, there are a few cringeworthy moments for sure.

3. Total and utter shit. You should be ashamed JJ.

That’s because Ep7 was a re-make of Ep4, it went rapidly downhill after that.

I watched it yesterday. I don’t think it’s that bad. It’s all subjective though, isn’t it?

Yeah, I like that theory! I think it would work best if her handler was Jar-Jar, who as we all know is an even more secret sith.

Ok you need a lie down now….

I’d stick an SSD up the USB3 port on my router

But you’re still limited to wifi speeds, no? Hence all the nice speed of the SSD ad USB 3 is wasted?

I’m desperate for storage and broke.

I’d love some super fast SSDs to replace the noisy HDDs. Trouble is, I have 2x8Tb, and 2x4Tb drives. That’s quite a lot of money already, at current storage prices. I dread to think what it would cost to switch…

BRING BACK THE BURSARY

Tower Hamlets is the only borough in the UK to have reintroduced the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and university bursaries to enable young people to go to university. Problem is, Tower Hamlets is led by Mayor Lutfur Rahman, which the Labour right tried smearing several years ago, yet still failed to prevent him from returning to local politics (mainly because most people in TH now hate the Labour party anyway, and understandably, given all they did when in power there was sell off loads of public buildings and land, enable massive corporations to set up there unopposed, and generally failed to address local needs). So, that’s one, extremely deprived borough, leading the way. A bit embarrassing really.

an argument for another day

Should be the Labour Party’s motto right now…

Nope

Its a moral position from other stuff I have heard from the labour party over this and I agree with that. Recruiting overseas nurses and doctors in general ( spain was a special case) and especially from poorer / developing countries damages their healthcare badly as it strips them of staff. One of the carribean islands had to shut its only ITU as 80% of the ITU nurses working on the island were recruited to work in the UK.

I’d like to read up on that if you have any links. Thanks.

As NickC says, his comments were about Labours pledge for 6500 more places at university in the UK to keep up with demand, rather than hope we can plunder other countries medically trained people to fill our gaps.

Bit what puts many people off training to become a nurse or doctor, are massive student debts. And massive housing costs. This is why it’s a lot easier to recruit from abroad, where people don’t have such massive debts to repay, so aren’t as stretched financially. Labour needs to reverse tuition fees for starters, before we can even think about recruiting more of Our Own™. And I don’t see them saying anything about that…..

Stop and consider for a moment, what do you need a NAS for. Do multiple people access it? Is read performance a concern? Is write performance a concern?
…
Is the best solution for your use case maybe more local storage?

I would echo this. A NAS is a pretty expensive and not ultimately the most efficient solution for home data storage. I have a basic one for films and music, for round the house access by multiple devices such as telly, iPad, etc, but all my files are stored on a 2 disc RAID 1 set in a cheapo enclose I bought online. I only switch it on when I need access to stuff, so it’s not always on, burning unnecessary energy and wearing out the drives. USB-3* connection, so quicker and more reliable than transferring data than over wi-fi, and faster (almost 5Gbps) than ethernet (assuming Gigabit ethernet on most machines). A NAS needs to be connected either to a router to enable wireless access of course.

*My iMac also has Thunderbolt/USB4, so even faster at 40Gbps, but such enclosures are very rare, and very expensive. Not a lot of use unless you need super fast data transfer. If you’ve been used to wifi data speeds, then USB 3 will seem lightning quick.

So yes. My main issues with NAS have been dropped/shonky connections. Need to Turn It Off Then Back On Again™ once a month on average. That’s why I much prefer a simple USB attacked storage device.

This “train more NHS staff, a plan for future staffing shouldn’t overly rely on recruiting from abroad”

British jobs for British workers, then?

iPhone 14.

Freedom of movement is coming back, eventually…

Really? Oh…

Starmer stating that there's 'not a great deal between the major parties on immigration' pic.twitter.com/psjYeoAwVJ

— j (@jrc1921) October 24, 2022

So, ‘not a great deal between the main parties on immigration’. Starmer favouring a ‘points based system’, which would inevitably favour certain demographics over others.

To know your enemy, you must become your enemy

Pretty much.

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

This is the contradiction at the heart of all Star Wars that spoils it for everyone. Somewhere in the George Lucas factory there’s a flashing neon sign that daily reminds the workers there that “STARS WARS IS FOR CHILDREN” but everyone also realises that the vast numbers of folks that invested into the original series in the 70’s and 80’s are now adults. The two cannot be reconciled.

The second trilogy was just crap. Appalling films. The original films weren’t just for children, they were for a wider audience. The ‘betrayal’ was in the piss poor quality of the second trilogy, in terms of acting, dialogue, characters, and the massive over-reliance on CGI. Truly terrible. I went to see the Phantom Menace in the cinema with some mates; left feeling massively disappointed. Many kids who saw it weren’t that impressed. Contrast that to 1977, when hordes of children came out of cinemas having experienced the ‘best film ever’. I didn’t bother with the next two, so that’s at least £12 lost to the film industry. If you want repeat customers, you need to keep up the quality of your products. The third trilogy was a much, much, much better effort (Princess Leia miraculously coming back to life aside…). I saw all 3 in the cinema (it’s not £6 a ticket any more..), and felt they were much more like proper Star Wars films. As was Rogue One, which is very good. Andor compliments the franchise extremely well, I think.

Also I reckon the security guy and the ISB dominatrix are definitely going to get it on

I do hope so. They’re both very darkly sexy characters. Full of simmering deep set hatred. Lovely uniforms too…

A good friend of ours worked on the costumes, I’ll pass this on.

Please do! I think one of the best aspects of the whole Star Wars empire is the costume design. It’s the benchmark for all other sci-fi stuff. Lots of homage to 2001, but a lot of original stuff too. Darth Vader’s costume truly is one of the best in the history of cinema. What is making Andor ‘work’ for me, what helps it to be that bit more entertaining, are the costumes. Absolutely superb. So big respect to all working on them!

It’s definitely settled in now, and improved as the series has gone on. Takes Star Wars to darker, more disturbing places, whilst remaining good ‘family’ entertainment. Sort of. perhaps not for younger kids. But a large part of the SW audience are middle aged men, let’s face it, so catering to them is an obligation. We were betrayed by the 2nd trilogy; those films are a travesty and disrespectful to the brand. Jar Jar **** Binks. The other spin offs have been varied; Rogue One was very good, I enjoyed Solo, andThe Mandalorian was ok. Boba Fett was pretty poor, and I’ve forgotten Obi-Wan Kenobi already that’s how uninspiring it was. Andor takes Star Wars where it needs to go.

TJ, the point is not everyone in the UK let alone globally can.

They can, but most of them just don’t want to.

I think if you belong to a minority group, you’re perhaps a little more likely to be the target for such abuse though…

Erm, I’m what some (angry) people might refer to as a ‘terf’, in that context. I don’t think such comments are particularly helpful at this juncture. And I’m very concerned about EVERYONE having ‘safe spaces’, btw.

Even internet armchair lawyers.

FWIW nothing in law is EVER 100% certain.

Are you 100% certain about that? 😉 You’re wrong on that, but to indulge you; I used the term ‘100% right’ more as a figure of speech; if you are arguing a case, then its a good idea to get ALL your facts right, as much as is possible, and have as much of the law on your side as you possibly can. Judges and juries need convincing; simply going ‘well I think that’s how it is’, won’t cut it.

If you think I am being rude – you have no idea what I actually want to write

You could have just answered some simple questions, and not got yourself into such a froth, misunderstanding people.

Throwing the Human Rights Act into the discussion dilutes the genuine value of the HRA for those people where the state and its authorities may be abusing their power.

So we shouldn’t be concerned about a possible breach of someone’s rights? Confusing…

Now, like your wife I have better things to do than argue with stupid people when I’m not getting paid for it. If I ever come back – someone please remind me of this thread.

Continued rudeness aside (resorting to abuse only enhances the paucity of your own argument), your verbosity and arrogance hasn’t actually led to anything conclusive or helpful. I’m sure your ego has taken a flex, but to what end? Are we any closer to any form of positive outcome here? Have you actually contributed anything genuinely constructive?

Two men broke into a single young woman’s abode and we’re arguing about contracts and tenancy agreements.

Precisely.

So, again just for shits and giggles

I’m glad it’s all such a laugh for you.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but it clearly happens a lot and none of my girls were bothered.

Oh well that’s ok then; it’s not an issue and the OP’s daughter is wrong for being frightened and feeling unsafe.

Thread closed.

It’s weird, isn’t it? ‘Why can’t they assimilate and be like us in OUR country’, yet when Brown people do give that a go, people still aren’t happy. ‘OMG Brown people in the countryside; I seem to see the river Calder foaming with much blood!’

Meanwhile, that vile **** Farage went unchallenged by Sarah Montague on BBC’s World at One programme, spewing bile about ‘floods’ of Albanians coming here etc. It isn’t so much the ignorant racist idiots on social media, it’s the amount of airtime the far right is being given, that should really concern us. And the fact we have a despicable criminal tory government who think it’s ok to fan the flames further.

If this is how you think the law works then you’re very mistaken

If you think I’m very much mistaken, then you’re very much mistaken.

AFAICT

No offence, but your opinion isn’t really adequate sorry.

Is it possible the armchair lawyers on here can park their egos for a bit, and try to actually understand the concern some people might have for someone to feel safe and secure within their own ‘home’ (we still haven’t established a firm legal definition of this, btw, but for sake of argument, student accommodation is still ‘home’ for those who live there for the period they need to). What has happened to the OP’s daughter is horrible, and even if ‘legal’ (we’re still not clear about that), still isn’t ‘right’. If the OP and their daughter can establish better boundaries as a result of this incident and thread, isn’t that the best outcome? Let’s work towards that then.

The closest appears to be Chiswick. There was a store in Fleet st, but that is apparently ‘permanently closed’. 🙁

She strikes me as a very wise woman.

She’s just eaten a crumb of something she found on the kitchen table, thought it was a piece of biscuit perhaps; turns out it’s actually a bit of plaster or house debris. 🤨

Yes I 100% can verify that the standard T&Cs used by many universities for their halls of residence are written on the same basis is a hotel / holiday rental etc.

So you’ll be happy to show us then, so that we can become better informed.

You know your 100% proof type shouting sounds like an anti-vax nutter?

The thing is, in law, you generally have to be 100% right, or you end up looking a bit of a tit. Isn’t it better, for the sake of the OP, his daughter and anyone else on this thread who is still even remotely interested, that we can establish the facts of law here, rather than people assuming and ‘believing’ things that might not actually be true?

Most universities will have their T&Cs available somewhere on line

As we’ve already established, this may well not actually be valid anyway. It’s good to check things properly.

How about you prove we are wrong and the courts have determined that university halls of residence are the students’ home?

I’m not trying to prove anyone ‘wrong’. I just want to know 100% what rights people have. Instead of being rude to me, why not prove your own arguments right?

Uni halls residents are not tenants (they have entered a legal agreement stating as much) and as such have different rights.

So what are their rights? That pertain to this thread?

@lunge; any shops in London? I try to avoid Birmingham at the best of times, traipsing all the way up there just to try on some shoes is a bit much really.

Problem is that University halls are not normal tenancies. Beyond that I know no more detail

Well stop **** saying it over and over again then! 🤣

No we’re not. She signed the licence agreement and the above clearly states that entry is permitted at any time.

If the licence agreement isn’t valid in law, then….

↪️🟥1️⃣

No it says they can enter a room at any time they want to – and that’s what every renter of a uni halls room agrees to in writing (and the gov document states is legal).

Does it? 100%? Can you verify this?

Jeez… some of you just want to argue!

I want to learn, to become better educated and informed. I see it as ‘questioning’ rather than arguing.

So it’s not necessary for a landlord to give notice.

We’re still not 100% sure, as what Sharkbait posted relates to lodgers rather than halls residents really.

Were the room inspectors “the landlord” from a legal standpoint? (Ie, does “the landlord’s representative” count?)

Where does it give them the right to break in? “No notice” implies turning up unannounced on your doorstep, not turning up unannounced in your bedroom, no?

This stuff is also important. Employees of the landlord can be ‘agents’, but even that can be a bit of a grey area. And we still don’t know 100% if they can enter an occupied room.

no-one seems to actually know definitively what her rights are.

This. We’re back to square one really.

This has been pointed out to me outside of the forum by a friend with a daughter who I asked for a steer. I apologise unreservedly, potentially upsetting the OP was the last thing I meant to do. I wanted readers to take the issue more seriously, was all.

Fairs.

Do you honestly think that it isn’t?

I didn’t know, that’s why I’ve been asking questions. Because that’s how you learn.

The section of law you’ve quoted pertains to renting a room in someone’s house; ie where the landlord is resident. There is also a section that would have been helpful had you also quoted it:

“This list only gives an indication of how different arrangements might be viewed: it is not definitive, and the important factor for any particular case is how the arrangement works in practice. Only a court can say with any certainty whether a letting is a tenancy or a licence to occupy; and the fact that a landlord may say that what he is offering or has granted is a licence rather than a tenancy (or the written agreement is headed “licence”), does not necessarily mean that this is what it will be considered to be. If there is a dispute or other issue where the nature of the let could be important, it is advisable to get legal advice.”

Well, well, so it is legal then

Is it?

@configuration – presumably your wife has now explained the human rights act to you

She listened briefly to my explanation, then said ‘I haven’t got time for this’. Which is fair enough. She’s not being paid to give advice here, and she’s too busy anyway. Hence why it’s a good idea to employ a lawyer specialising in such matters.

Perhaps your wife has also read a university halls “license agreement” and knows they aren’t tenancies at all, nor are they likely to be considered your home.

Can you verify this 100% as fact? Because facts, not opinions, are what’s important here.

IANAL, but as i said the fact it seems to be in the contracts with many Universities and HEI’s leads me to believe that it is

So, you can’t, then? Ok. Anyone who can?

Legally, usually they are akin to staying in a hotel.

Again, can you verify this 100%? Are you suggesting that hoteliers can just enter your (locked) hotel room at any time, without notice or warning? Facts please.

Yeah, but as i think we’ve said time and again, it’s not a ‘home’ in the same sense of the word.

And again; can we verify this 100% please? What is the UK legal definition of a ‘home’?

As this Agreement is a licence, we have the right to enter the Accommodation at any time (including during the night)
without giving you notice.
In most instances (out of courtesy only and not because we are legally obliged to do so*), we will enter the Accommodation
during the day giving reasonable prior written notice (poster, text or email) of our intention to enter.
If we do not give you prior notice of our intention to enter the Accommodation, we will knock on the door first in order to
see if you are present then we will let ourselves into the Accommodation using our master key.

Draw whatever conclusions you want from that but I’m pretty sure they’d have drawn that up with full knowledge of the law.

Hmm. Can you verify this is legal? This is the bit that people need to know. As already mentioned; you can write any old guff into a contract, but it’s not enforcable/valid unless it falls within the remit of law. Full stop.

Personally, I’ not be living anywhere where the landlords claim they can enter your ‘home’ without any notice, at anytime. End of.