Odd. The ones on my 2005 X9 mech on the hack bike that never really gets cleaned have outlasted 2 XT sets on the good bike that I got 6 years later. I know that doesn’t help, but not all SRAM stuff is tat.

Democracy is continuous. It never stops. The motivations, information, opinions, prejudices, desires and fears of those who vote can and do change and democracy must allow the accommodation of those changes.

The idea that June 2016 created an unchangeable event where the people cannot change their mind based on what they discover later is undemocratic.

Continuing to campaign for a changed plan based on how far the Brexit reality is from the promises made is entirely consistent with democracy. The idea that any subject is closed to debate and change is not.

I have yet to hear a practical solution, from remoaners on how to handle the integration of EU law. But no surprise there…

You’re sounding more and more like a leaver every day THM.

Not Remainers problem to solve but I don’t know any who object to the great repeal bill. The objection is entirely about the transfer of power from Parliament to Ministers.

Glaramara is a peak, but often done as a circuit of a couple of ridges. Given you mate usually tries to be obscure, it could be Bessyboot – still think it is north of Glaramara itself.

Join a club +1
Apart from the coaching available, most clubs have a variety of boats you can try before feeling the need to commit to either the sport or any type of boat.

Don’t know that the Langdale Pikes would appear that separate from Glaramara. I wonder if it is possibly more like Rosthwaite Fell.

Automowers
Forget ride on mower – get a couple of these set up and spend the time saved riding.

Best way out of it if it really is too inconvenient is to list all the dates you can’t make it and where there’s proof of the booking to make you unavailable. Last time I went it seemed like 100+ people turned up for 2 juries to be selected and a couple of them got out of it by saying things like “I know the defendant” without that even being corroborated.

If you have a few days and want to sample a bit of variety, you could do worse than spend a day in Torridon from Inverness, stop over in Shieldaig or Plockton, spend a day on Skye then head east via Glen Shiel to A9. Gives you weather options to stay west on one of the Kintail ridges or head east to Cairngorms (Kyle to Aviemore c. 2:15 hours). You could come off Skye at the Glenelg Ferry, look at the Brochs on the way as a wee detour.

How much time are you allowing for this on day 1 to allow you to enjoy it? Newtonmore via Glen Banchor to Fort Augustus was 5.5 hours without a pack when I did it last summer. Add train. Add couple of hours for Laggan playtime and time for carrying touring weight. Pretty full on day.

Day 1 – Train to Newtonmore rather than Kingussie as it is closer. And would save you a few minutes you could use to ride up Glen Banchor (couple of k bit tough but can be ridden) and down Strath an Eilich to Cluny Castle. You could also head up from Laggan village towards the spey dam and cut through to Laggan from there which minimises miles on the main road.

When I talk to younger colleagues who I know earn less, low interest rates plus a sense of entitlement combine to make them see, want, buy with little thought beyond that.

Apparently I’m just being old and out of date for having no debt other than mortgage. But they seem to equate happiness with stuff, so I guess that’s just the way things are for many people now.

Which imo is probably what the EU hope for anyhow, hence their insistance that the final date is the date.

But minus our current rebate – you know, to make up for all the cost of chaos we’ve caused.

The referendum vote could have been a loaded gun to point at EU with a “reform sensibly or else” message, but only Britain could point it at our own heads instead.

Its not about binary choices @oldbloke but tariffs and restrictions we can remove

FFS – where and what? Make it more expensive to the EU and I have to find somewhere else to sell. So where am I going to get that margin back that I can’t already go to?

Jamba, please tell me, as I’ve asked before & you’ve never given a credible answer, where I can’t currently trade that Brexit will let me.

USA, India, Middle East, Far East, Africa – all perfectly workable right now and the EU isn’t holding us back. So you want to hamper our ability to trade with our single biggest market (50% of sales and highest margin) to gain precisely what? And from where?

There isn’t anywhere we want to go we can’t already go.

We run about 8 of them for work and despite being worked hard by staff who have never taken great care of previous vehicles, they’re lasting better than the Peugeot Partners they replaced whilst using less fuel and going through fewer tyres.

“Business opportunities in the commonwealth countries”. Yes. But has he tried them?

Canada – we tried that. Shafted, suspected corruption at local political / business levels. Not really a replacement for the ease of dealing with the EU.
India – bureaucracy which makes the complained about EU red tape look trivial. Great to be there but EU wasn’t stopping us.

Non Commonwealth:
Middle East? Already can and do.
Far East? Already can and do.
USA? Already can and do.
Africa? Bit like India, but with added spice of regional conflict.

Really not seeing where we can make up for pissing off the EU. High margin, easy & relatively cheap transport, stable legal environment.

There aren’t any countries we can’t already go to and any benefits of changing the relationships there are outweighed by the additional costs almost certainly coming to deal with EU.

And another great Brexit result. Just when are the Brexit fans going to start acknowledging that what we’re losing is more than what they seek to gain.

London to lose EUR clearing

dazh – I suspect that mural’s been photoshopped. I think the brothers in arms mural was a UDA / Loyalist Volunteer Force one.

Not that it excuses the UDA / DUP links.

Factually and logically incorrect

Actually, for once he’s right. The personal allowance is withdrawn for incomes over £100k at the rate of £1 for every 2 earned. That has the effect of making the marginal rate of income tax for income £100-120(ish)k 60%.

The road from Ullapool to Inverness is something else for deer crossing the road at night, proper red deer, in numbers, keeps you on your toes though!

Try the next 40 miles north of Ullapool… They lie hidden in the roadside ditches and jump out suddenly, so it is a road for taking your time on (or letting the North Coast 500 racers take them out for you).

I know – but it is the only link I could find to the claim, which in itself is rather telling.

I remembered reading something like that a few years ago
Link but that is a few years out of date so no idea if the same analysis done now would be the same

One thing that is a little different post debate is the comments on BBC articles. In the last while they’ve been the Brexit and Tory fanatics foaming at the mouth over EU and supporting dearest Theresa. After the debate those saying “how’s she going to negotiate with the EU if she can’t tackle Corbyn” seem to be the most popular.

Might be a different audience, but a noticeable change in the most popular viewpoint.

I wondered if there could be a device of sorts that could sit in or over a tram line that crosses the forward path of a cycle lane that allows the tram wheel to pass through but ‘close’ after the tram wheel is passed-allowing for a road surface that doesn’t have a metal trough in it. Kind of like a rubber gaiter of sorts that is stiff enough to part for a tram wheel but close and ‘seal’ the tram track- akin to closing a zip.

There is and it was discussed and rejected in the design of the system. Something like:
Velostrail

Cyclists have been trying to sue the council for a few years over the design deficiencies and that’s come to nothing so, sadly, can’t see this making a change.

I live in the only Labour constituency in Scotland and just had our MPs canvassers at the door. Conversation went something like:

“We’d like to encourage you to vote for Ian Murray”
“He’s a decent MP, but, well, don’t want to encourage anyone to take that as an endorsement of Corbyn”
“Yes, we get that. Everyone’s telling us he’s the problem”
“Yes, he is”
“You don’t need to worry though, he’ll not be PM and he won’t be around for much longer”
“So what’s the point in voting Labour then?”
“Fair point”

The fact that “UK exports of salmon to France up by 31%” “last year” (page dated 21st Feb 2017) is a devastating blow to the remoaners.

The only difference Brexit has made to that is the GBP value we get, not the appetite to sell it to France. The rise is more down to poor market prices the prior year than any Brexit revival.

Brexit isn’t looking good for us right now.

Just leave it and watch for rust. If she’s done it once, she’ll possibly do it again.
My wife did similar and just before it was to go into the bodyshop she did it again. I left it a while and then she did it a third time so I stopped caring. Roll on several years and the car was scrapped without ever being fixed.

You didn’t quote anyone. You said that the IFS “only referenced deprived areas”, like deprived areas are irrelevant and those less fortunate than you don’t count for anything. That’s pretty vile, I think.

Can’t believe I’m going to defend Jamba particularly after all the nonsense he posts on the Brexit thread, but that’s not the message I read.

IFS says free school meals help the deprived. It does not provide any evidence to suggest that the same benefit is delivered in a non-means tested approach of free school meals for everyone. Where government resource is limited, surely it should be targeted on the basis of both evidence and need?

I live in Scotland, where SNP gave free school meals to P1-3, irrespective of means testing. At my wife’s school, uptake increased but mainly amongst those paying for it already, and the school lost outdoor space having to build an extra dining hall (instead of replacing the 3 portakabin classrooms which are disintegrating). No matter which way you look at it, that’s not the best use of limited resources.

For my own interests I had a quick look at TUI’s figures over the last few years – in a former life I worked for a firm that was bought up by TUI. In the last 10 years they don’t seem to have posted figures with a profit margin ratio of greater than 6% and that was a standout year from one of the most successful firms in the sector.

Several years ago, one part of my job was setting prices for a travel company. The aim was to sell out peak season for as much as the market would take and try and fill enough of the rest of the year to at least make enough money to survive another season. Rich we were not.

You can argue that the peak travellers are subsidising the off-peak or you can argue the off-peak pay just enough to allow the peak to happen. Either way there’s no point complaining – that’s the way the numbers work.

Yes. Just finally gave our 55 plate to the garage for parts. One thing after another and it did too many miles on the back of an AA truck.

Jesus Jones – probably around 1994.

EDIT: Looks like March 26th 1993 supported by Sunscreem. 24 years ago!
How long?! – spooky though – I was at that gig and I think Duran Duran in the same week. Great place particularly when the sprung floor had an extra layer of crushed plastic pint pots on it and everyone was up for it.

If I’m not mistaken, as part the recent council tax increase for band E upwards, the SNP proposal was to ring-fence that extra money for the exclusive use of schools.

The tories, labour etc forced them to abandon that but the SNP have agreed to meet the equivalent funding from elsewhere.
The objection was not to the funding of schools, but to central government making tax & spend decisions which are the preserve of local authorities. It was perceived to be undermining the democratic accountability of local government. I’m sure a clever mind could have got round that but they’re in short supply in Holyrood.

If 9/11 had and affect it was in speeding up decommissioning, and that’s about it.

Not just that. There was newspaper coverage at the time that for some parts of the republican leadership, talks were a tactic whilst fundraising, recruitment and training could carry on. What 9/11 did was remove the US funding and any way back to the previous path. Once

The fact the SNP have 56 of the 59 Westminster seats says to me that the Scottish people want independence, otherwise why would you vote for a party who’s key pledge is independence if you didn’t want independence?

Because with the Independence question supposedly settled by the 2014 referendum, voting for them for other reasons was possible, aided by the implosion of Labour.
Not that they actually deliver on their promises, but that’s a familiar tale no matter the colour of the rosette.

Tesla Model S has 900 litres of cargo space and 4wd!

Why do you need 500 miles of range? Do you often drive that far without a single break?

Tesla is also £2500 per month to run according to Parkers, which sort of rules it out.
500 miles – west and far north west of Scotland with limited access to charging points. Yes it could be done on less, but not without lots of time consuming inconvenience.

Skoda Superb Estate, 280 TSI Sportline 4×4.

Looked at it originally. But I said realworld 40mpg. Combined official doesn’t even get there!

Anybody who has a choice and buys a diesel car right now is an idiot.

Choice is key and has been reduced through the government approved drive for more diesels.

Find me a petrol estate with 4WD, good rear legroom behind a 6ft+ driver, >600L of boot space that is relatively quick yet does >40mpg in the real world.

That’s why I ended up with a diesel. I hope it will last until electric is an option with the 500 mile + range I need.

Good point as no one has ever been delayed by something going wrong on the trains and if they are its almost definitely their fault

To be fair to binners, JMcD did say problems would be solved by renationalisation. When the problem he had was Network Rail’s problem – the publicly owned Network Rail that is.

Pity – it would have been good to see him on the show.

One of my colleagues has 75k miles on a 2WD 190 Ultra A6 SE and complains about 45mpg average.

40 Average from 4WD vs that would be OK.
Looked at the 190 Quattro A6 but decided my money would be better spent on the Passat BiTdi 4Motion. Only 1000 miles in but c. 42mpg.

Are you measuring this MPG at the tank or going by the dash display where BMW and Audi versions of the truth may be different?