TJ – the commons library says what is renegotiation vs review.  Actually says some parts need to be renegotiated.  I think most will understand that it will be limited rather than wholesale but the ability to improve its operation is there.  Lots of what is problematic is less about the TCA and more about is implementation.  Plenty could be improved about cross-border food inspection and documentation processes without necessarily changing the TCA.

TJ – try the commons library rather than press reporting.  It lists what’s to be renegotiated vs what’s to be reviewed.  You’re making a big deal over the word “renegotiation” as if that’s all-encompassing.  Some parts are to be renegotiated. The workings overall are to be reviewed.  Plenty of wriggle room there for willing parties to make it a bit better than it is.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10040/

TJ – As a food exporter I’ve had more painful familiarity with the TCA than I might wish.

The TCA provides for formal review in a window opening May 2026 (and every 5 years thereafter).  There are several provisions of it which expire that year and need to be renegotiated for anything to continue – energy cooperation, fishing access etc.  Whether the TCA is operating as intended or not so that procedures may be revised if necessary is the main part of the review.  It isn’t a wholesale renegotiation, but there’s plenty that can be adjusted within the framework provided if both parties are willing.

On the EU – expect fine words and no action.  The withdrawal agreement is not up for any renegotiation

It is actually.  There’s a formal review in 2026 which could see both parties agree amendments.   The conversations around that will start well before any formal date.

Some are worth it, some not – depends on what you expect to achieve.

I had one when leaving an accountancy firm ages ago because I wanted my former colleagues to have better prospects.

Exit interview with managing partner.  One of my reasons for leaving was that they expected me to work with a different partner who I didn’t respect and who I had discovered wasn’t respected by the sector in which we worked and so was unlikely to get much business.

That partner was gone in 6 months. Can’t imagine all because of what I said, but it was certainly part of the picture.

I wouldn’t be getting too excited about RSUs given they’re in the income taxes regime and are taxable when they vest.  I think the total vesting is deemed to include employer NI, so by the time you take off that, income tax and employee NI, there’s a lot gone.

Start with the structure – you ideally want it under the capital, rather than income, taxes regime.

Liquidity – how do you get the value out?

Protection – you’ll want some assurance you don’t end up with nothing because of some dilution event.

Value – what’s the benefit to the other shareholders of the targets you aim to hit and then what % of that is reasonably attributable to you.

Don’t you just follow the money trail in an embezzlement case? It’s either moved from X account to Y account or it hasn’t.

And whether the paper trail of authority matches the transactions made.  It should be a Y/N sort of thing rather than needing anyone to remember anything.

As you said “go for the BiTDi” about an Audi and “Passats are great cars” then why not a Passat BiTDi?

The last of them will be about 3 yrs old and they’re a bit more responsive than that Arteon would be.

Because its the law*

Interested to know where that legal reference is because it isn’t in s363 of Communications Act covering licence obligations and Moneysavingexpert says no legal obligation to do so. (I have a licence, but the debate got me interested to look).

Back on the thread topic – fake exhaust pipes on cars.  I don’t know why it bugs me where there are two pipes and only one is used, but it really does.

Went through similar with our then 13 YO.  They’re all different, but in case it helps you, what worked for us was:

We found it wasn’t just what he ate, but also when.  No appetite for breakfast but mid morning could hoover loads.   Solved the initial problem with smoothies – you can hide a fair bit of banana in something that has lots of yoghurt and red berries too ( big bags of frozen ones made that affordable).  He still has one daily 4 years on.

When he was fussy with eating, told him he could have what he wanted as long as he made the effort to choose and then cook it.  Became interested in food generally and now cooking for us all a couple of times each week.

There’s a contact form on the Police Scotland website. I used it to report someone. PS replied to ask a few more questions then a few days later sent a message saying the driver had been contacted and spoken to about his behaviour.

Whichever junior mug of a Tory MP is on Question Time

Richard Holden, who is able to display all the knowledge you’d expect for a Transport Minister.

<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’; background-color: #eeeeee;”>i did here a suggestion that it could be a marine NP which I thought was an interesting idea, but of course the fishing communities would probably not like such a plan and presumably fish farm lobby would hate it too.</span>

See HPMA – Fish farms didn’t like it, but it was the faces and voices of multiple local fishing communities which have driven the change of policy.

You can still buy a new Focus or Fiesta

Not for much longer. Late last year Ford announced the end of the Fiesta and the Focus over the next couple of years to make SUV / crossovers instead.

If anybody can suggest a way of upsetting openreach (*but not the blokes in the vans) that would be handy.

Your wayleave will be with a particular company which will be listed on the agreement. Write to them. Mine is with the old BT (Co Number 1800000) so I’m making it their problem to sort out.

We have a wayleave for BT set up in the 1970’s by the previous owners x3 which was a one off payment and when I asked if it could be changed was told it was in perpetuity so tough. ( the language was more legalese but that was the nub of it)

Worth getting a copy of the wayleave and reading it. I’ve an old (condemned) pole in my garden and was told I’d have to pay compensation for the end of the wayleave if I asked for it to be removed. Got a copy of the wayleave and it says no such thing. It should also never have been granted as it post-dates our area becoming a Conservation Area. Currently in the debate phase of “where’s the reference to either existence or value of compensation liability” which keeps going unanswered.

it’s a massive abuse of power by the state and we would never accept holding people essentially indefinitely without charge whilst the prosecution piece together a case.

Have you seen how bad it is in England?
Sky News

40 years of fell runners in the hills here – from when the choice was Walsh PBs or Walsh PBs. Boots only for winter when crampons needed as don’t find any benefit from them at any other time. To get any appreciable ankle support means loss of agility and I find the latter more useful. Done lots of scrambles in Lakes & Skye in fell running shoes and never felt like boots would have been a better option. Currently in La Sportiva Mutants and haven’t used anything else this winter yet.

Rather blows the “rejoining will take too much time and effort” argument out of the water.

Remember this argument sits with the EU too. Brexit has taken a lot of time and effort from the EU they could have spent on other activity. The idea they’d be interested in the UK rejoining without UK membership being a settled matter across all parties and at least a couple of parliaments is perhaps optimistic. To rejoin we’d need to be able to prove we intended to stay.

Abysmal. The family wanted a dog and much of my running was replaced by dog walking from January. However, she’s becoming a running machine now so those walks are becoming runs and 2023 is looking up. Not setting distance targets, but being able to do days of 20+ miles / 6000+ft in the hills again would be good.

The amount of unearned wealth sloshing around this country in assets such as property is obscene. Why not do a 1% one off wealth tax on property assets over £300k? A 5% tax on property wealth that’s not your primary residece?

There is an issue generally with later taxation of value which has been legally accumulated under the rules prevailing at the time. Tends to lead to unintended consequences.

What I’d rather see is reformation of Council Tax with the burden increasingly weighted towards higher value property. That’s long overdue and is something the Scottish Government could do. It avoids retrospective taxation pitfalls and is hard to avoid.

The rUK system is barely any different – and you forget those with Student Loans are paying another 9% already, but not in Scotland.

Not forgetting at all – rUK is different – the £43-50k difference exists in Scotland only because of Nat Ins thresholds and them not being devolved. rUK tax and NI thresholds are aligned. The £100k-125k is little different. I can’t find the article at the moment, but I think it suggested the highest marginal rate of tax was in the high 70s% including student loan element.

I’ll wait for someone to publish the marginal rates of tax once this has settled, but as Nat Ins thresholds are not different in Scotland, the band between £43k where Scottish Higher rate starts and £50k when Nat Ins drops means the marginal rate of tax looks like 42% tax + 12% NI = 54%. And the £100-125k band will now be (effectively) 63% tax and 2% NI = 65% because of withdrawal of personal allowance. Any time the state takes more or your income than you keep yourself, and then drops the marginal rate of tax for those earning more, there’s something wrong with the system.

Easy to forget just how bad some services in The rest of the UK have got.

Not that great here. My wife is a teacher and teaching isn’t in a great state with the gradual erosion of resource coupled with increasing expectation. Can’t get a GP appointment easily and I’ve just had a hospital appointment for my son cancelled for the 3rd time because of lack of staff and now been punted to Glasgow in March instead of Edinburgh.

Don’t mind paying for services – but the disconnect between rising taxes and lowering service does make me doubt the ability of those in charge. I have to deal with quangos enough to know that competence and efficiency are not universally high.

Way too hard – such a strong decade.
Lots of time for everything mentioned above, but two others i remember listening to a lot at the time:
Stereo MCs – connected
The Shamen – Boss Drum

Yup – The Bike Station in Edinburgh. Bought lots of bits from them too over the years to build kids bikes. I see it a bit like I just rent a part for a while and then it goes back when I don’t need it anymore.

That HOlt thought what she said made any sense and was in anyway an answer to the question

You’ll love her other interviews in that case

We had a couple of Evoques and Discovery Sports at work. None made it to 3 years, let alone the 6/7 years most vehicles are kept. Just not worth the reliability hassle.

+2 for those Decathlon ones linked to by IHN. My wife and I both use them.

The IEA are basically running the country.

It is their far right dream.

Tim Montgomerie admitted as much on Twitter.

How is cutting corporation tax meant to promote corporate investment? Surely corporation tax is paid on profits after expenditure, which includes investment?

Risk and reward – pay less tax then the return on that investment is higher (or you need a lower expected return to take the same risk). I always look at the post-tax, not pre-tax, benefits of investment decisions.

On that ferry to Bilbao does anyone ever use that indoor pool? much fun when the ship’s rocking and the water spills out of the pool into the bar floor. Can’t imagine anyone getting changed and going for a swim there while everyone else watches.

I took one look at it slopping over the sides and went to the bar. My wife on the other hand…
Still, at least the kids didn’t drown.

Presumably you’ve had dozens of chains, cassettes, jockey wheels, chainrings and cables run through it though, so the only ‘originals’ will be the cranks, mech and shifter?

Surprisingly few. Even when the cassettes and chains are badly worn, they work. Just cleaning properly after every ride. Cables in full length outers last years with an occasional lube. Jockey wheels taken out, greased regularly.

Not sure how you downgrade from a 2005 SRAM X9 9 speed, but it refuses to die so I’ll find out when it finally does.
Any other bike has had Deore or Tiagra put on when original bits died. Unless I can upgrade the rider, spending more seems excessive.

Depends where in the country you are and how far you want to travel.

Many good places will have options from taster sessions to longer courses depending on how seriously you want to take it.

Jambourgie
Less about how heavy you are and more about what the boat is designed for. Short and wide = stable and turns easily. Long and narrow with a pointy front end = faster and less stable.

My sea kayak will easily hold 5-6mph. My plastic playboat can’t keep up with a walker either. Usually the best thing to do is wander along to a club, most of which have a range of boats, and try out some alternatives to see what best suits what you want to use it for.

Cathedral Cave in Little Langdale?

In-laws in similar situation in rural East Renfrewshire. They found a decent local taxi driver to rely on plus various patient bus services which trundle around. FIL just takes the paper with him and does whatever waiting about is needed to get those lifts.

I’ve got that one you list and it is a great bit of kit.

Learn how to use the vents under the coals and the vents on top to govern the speed of the charcoal lighting and then cooking. You can burn sausages in seconds or slow cook if you want. Everything else, others have covered.