Should it be illegal to avoid voting?

NO!

Even politicians need to have some method of measuring of how important democracy is to the population. To find out whether they are doing anything worth getting excited about etc.

Forcing people to vote wouldn’t be very democratic would it?

The democratic system, if you ask me, is a bit of a farce and too bloody expensive!

Get a £1.50 bell and use it! Pedestrians out on walks respond well to them. They know immdiately what is approaching without needing to turn around – even the stupid ones!

“The Great Cholesterol Con” by Malcolm Kendrick which states very plausibly that the amount of cholesterol you eat has no effect on blood levels (due to simple negative feedback), cholesterol levels are unrelated to heart disease and higher levels usually correlate with greater life span.

Is Malcolm Kendrick some crazy “quack”, or a respected medical expert?

Link to a compatible Polar HRM belt

It’s the Bluetooth version and is fully compatible!

Surely other places sell it at much more competitive prices though.

A model number would clear up the confusion.

Oops! 😆

One just like this could be mine pretty soon (assuming it’s not a wreck) 🙂

This could be mine pretty soon (assuming it’s not a wreck) 🙂

Elfinsafety – Member

Ooh no I don’t know how you lot can do that.

I feel queasy on the Woolwich ferry.

Oh please!!

That wasnt amazing it was pretty damn stupid and the sea rarely gives you second chances.

I went overboard during an overnight race once and was shitting myself – got back on quite quick and I never ever want to be in that situation again. We did a gybe at about 11kts in heavy seas and the skipper who was a crap helm made an arse of it as usual.

You weren’t hooked on with a safety harness???

The curry house there is tops!

As I’ve mentioned before I’ve decided to sell my Triumph Daytona before I lose my licence, but I still can’t decide what to replace it with other than it has to be a naked bike.

May I suggest replacing the last word of the above sentence with the words “nubile nympho”?

Mikuni make diesel powered warm air heaters. Not as cheap as the Propex though.

FFS!!

Why are the 33 miners heroes? – Surely the real heroes are the rescuers. The drillers and capsule designers saved the 33 lives – they should be the ones getting all the glory.

Yeah, they haven’t had a mention, which is pretty damned unfair seeing as they have worked their nuts off day and night for two months.

The media have been dining out on this whole charade like vultures.

I just saw a PR thing on the One show about how these miners could make between £10-100 million out of this. FFS!

The claptrap commentary I heard on BBC was incredible – just making a story out of speculation and other fluff. We’ve had BBC reporters and a small army of others out there for weeks on end – totally ove the top, total waste of license payer’s money!

The accident should never have happened and Chilean authorities should feel embarrassed about their gross negligence. So they should have wound their necks in a bit.

It’s the same same old media hype and bullshit. It’s so damned patronising!

I am very pleased these guys got out alive, but the media storm has been ugly (as usual)!

I recall a thread about a dog that died. It brought forth a huge outpooring of sympathy for the owner. When Simon made some comment like “I think I have stumbled on a parallel universe” and went on to talk about anthropomorphism he got banned.

So the only conclusion can be that posts perceived as damaging to mental health are OK but those perceived as upsetting to the owners of deceased animals are not?

Yeah the mods on here have double standards.

The batteries in the keys have been replaced and this happens with both sets of keys in any location.

I am unocking the driver’s door, putting the key in the ignition and swithcing on, then pressing the unlock button, removing the key. I think this might be wrong, but the manual is rather vague about the task. After doing this. all then works fine, but only for a few minutes.

The vehicle’s battery has a good level of charge.

This appears to be some sort of electronics issue within the vehicle.

Is there anyone with direct expereince who can fill me in? Thanks in advance!

The locking and the setting of the alarm occur simultaneously.

The problem is the car won’t respond at all.

Who gives a shxt? It’s only football!

Can’t believe people are stupid enough to pay through the nose to these companies, just to watch a game of footy!

I reckon a gate price to watch a game should be less than a tenner.

I just don’t get it. Can someone explain?

Because for joe public, google is free.

Yeah right!

Google collects a lot of information about you. It certainly ain’t free!

You might not be paying them directly, but they are using your browsing history very much to their financial advantage!

There are also serious issues of privacy.

Nothing is for free these days!

+1 for Labour screwing up uni for everyone who needs to go to uni to get the qualification they need to do the job they want.

I hear that, to get a job in a call centre, you need one of these pointless degrees.

Labour’s definitely fecked things up. They made a degree a mandatory financial burden for young people.

It’s bullshit!

“uni” = term used by the type of students who are mostly doing pointless fluffy degrees, who are there predominantly for the social scene and to avoid the evil moment of having to get a job!

University should be for the top 5% of highly capable talented people, not privileged toffs, or mediocre “also rans”.

What schools and parents routinely fail to understand is that success in a competitive environment is all about an individual’s personal drive and entrepreneurial spirit.

Business people want individuals with a bit of gumption and initiative, not a bunch of people who have swanned about at college for three years!

Personally, I think anything other than heavy duty degrees, such as those in law, medicine, science, maths etc are a waste of everyone’s time. I’m talking about media degrees, sports science and any other similarly fluffy pointless nonsense.

My advice is to get out there at the coalface and show employers you aren’t some lightweight flake. Take responsibility and excel in your role. Show your worth!

Condems have got to trim down the overbloated university system. It’s no big deal because, for most people, this higher education option has been nothing but a big financial mistake!

Would not wish to be in an accident in one!!

That’d be cool, to arrive at a party and ask everyone if they want to see your Porsche.

I want to set up a small business as an extra earner, nothing major but I don’t want to fall foul of any thing.
It’ll be internet based and I have most things in place to launch the site in a few weeks.

You’ll need to market your website and get it up the google rankings.

Do I need to set up a business or can I trade as a sole trader/one man band?

Sole trader is cheaper and simpler to start with and means you can remain anonymous (a lot of LTD company information is public, like how much you turn over, profit, director’s names etc).

Do I need a separate “business” bank account or can I use my current account?

You definitely should not use your current account for business purposes! Look for free business banking for the first few months.

Obviously I’ll need to tell the Tax man about it, is this very straight forward?

Not until you submit a tax return.

Any other tips or things I should know?

1) You need to see an accountant and get his advice before you do anything!

2) You need customers to start buying stock before you invest significantly.

3) Have you thought about using eBay to get things off thr ground?

4) Running a business can be a lonely occupation and you will be maintaining numerous functions in order to enable the business to run and to grow. It can absorb a lot of your time.

5) What’s your USF? If you haven’t got one, might struggle to find your niche.

6) Are you able to compete with your rivals?

7) Could you cope with a big demand?

8 ) Know your market and where your business slots in.

9) What’s your long term goal?

10) Have you done a business plan?

11) Have you worked out your t’c and C’s?

12) Will you need to be VAT registred?

Loads of things to consider!

Have you heard that Aston Martin are bringing out a lawnmower? It’s based on a Honda HF2417 HME Garden Tractor, but will retail for more than double the price of the product on which it’s based. Aston Martin will be doing this because it’s marketing people know that there are plenty of daft suckers out there who’ll gladly part with a huge premium to associate themselves wih a badge. Hilarious!

I think it’s an innate hatred of aristocracy and people being ‘born into’ something

😆 What! Like Lord Prescot?? 😆 😆 😆

Like him, if this honour was bestowed upon you, you’d forget your principles and accept the title thus joining this elitist group.

What you should really take issue is who decides who is worthy of such “honour”.

It’s a bit of a two tier system where some get title by birth right, others get awarded it, supposedly on merit. I reckon many honours are well deserved, but who are we to question these descisions that are made on high?

I’m sure someone in here will enlighten us as the the workings of this mechanism.

What if the cable breaks?

Etch a sketch was a big failure as a toy. It was almost impossible to draw anything with them.

Anyone who works in IT support only has themselves to blame!

Even at 10 % it is by no stretch of the imagination “middle earners”

Well the news article I saw said that 6 million people would be affected. Only half the population work, so the percentage has to be something like 20% of working people.

Or pehaps there was political meddling going on there and the BBC just wanted to make things sound a lot worse than they really are.

The thing about statistics is that you can use them to easily distort the true picture.

You obviously haven’t got the “forum troll exclusion” plug in! 😆

Define Fair!

Everyone bearing a proportionate amount of the tax burden – a percentage?

Surely, for example, hiking tax by 1% would be simpler and would raise a lot more money for the exchequer than messing about with child benefit.

This would accord better with this “were all in this together” spin we keep hearing!

+1 Bazzer!!

My mate did that to his arm when he came off in the Alps a good few years ago. He broke a collarboane at the same time and had to be airlifted off the mountain.

Yes! It takes millions of pounds and a long time to implement changes. Many of these schemes fail miserably, such as the one intended to recover ill gotten gains from criminals. This cost the tax payer hugely more money than it recovered!

Keep it simple is my motto!

Any rechargeable that fails to hold a charge is usually spent.

Try cycling them a couple of times (running flat then fully charging)

5-6 years is a long time for NiMH (even those that are well maintained). NiCd can last much longer if looked after and charged with an intelligent charger (I have some that are 17 yrs old which are still serviceable).

When you buy replacements, get an indelible marker such as those used on blank CD’s and date the new ones. That way you will know what’s what going forward.

£15 a month is all very fine except it adds up to £1800 over 10 years!!!

Yeah, that’s how insurance works. They wouldn’t do it if they didn’t receive more money than they paid out!

Funny, I thought insurance worked on economies of scale, i.e. having lots of policy holders with premiums and based on an average of the percentage who might need to claim, cost per claim etc.

£15 is too much and i would not recommend this. I would use a local central heating engineer myself. British Gas are very expensive! I got them to quot my mother for a replacement boiler. They came up with £4.5K for an £800 boiler and a day’s work for two men!?

If there is no life whatsoever, check the main fuse in the spur to which the boiler is attached.

I would class a 3 year old boiler as virtually new, so replacing it would be madness unless it had suffered a catastrophic failure.

Ans to OP; You can’t miss what you haven’t experienced.

Personally, I think bikes are fantastic, but if you are one of these people who don’t feel 100% confident on the road, don’t touch ’em with a bargepole.

Likewise, if yoiu are a bit hotheaded DEFINITELY don’t touch ’em!!

Skiing in Tahoe was fantastic. The snow was awesome – cold and dry powder. 8) 😆

Get a book of flexi-tickets which allow you to ski different resorts or you will get handsomely tucked up. Ticket prices on the kisk on the day are much higher than you pay in advance.

You can buy a flexi-pass in the UK and you’ll get sent a voucher. When you arrive in Tahoe, this is presented at the main ticket office for a book of tickets. You present the book each morning at whichever resort and they tear off one ticket, you sign it and then you get your day pass.

We did some good tree skiing in Heavenly too, again with people with intimate knowledge of the resort.

Sugarbowl in the North was memorable. Some good steep skiing there.

Kirkwood provided the best tree skiing experience I had that holiday, but we had a local mountain ranger guide us to places nobody usually goes. Mind you, Kirkwood was quiet that day as most skiers come in for the weekends in the Tahoe region.

Americans don’t seem to take the 1-2 weeks that we Europeans do. I guess they don’t get so much time off and there are enough people within driving distance to sustain these resorts with weekend skiing. Expect higher prices for accommodation at weekends as a result.

South Lake Tahoe has a lot of casinos on the Nevadan side, which get packed with weekend trippers. Personally, I thought this detracted from the ski holiday and some of the people in there were shall we say, erm, not skiing types!

The casino’s are an important part of the local economy, but there are better places on the Californian side of the state line (which divides South Lake Tahoe).

One of the most memorable experiences we had was being guided off the top of Heavenly, the mountain overlooking Sth Tahoe/the lake and skiing back down to the town through the trees. It’s completely wild skiing, steep and with lots of fallen trees to negotiate. I’m not expert off piste in trees, but the whole group found this tough, even the locals we were with who ski there every week throughout the season.

Set aside two days to see San Francisco. The sites are awesome and a night in “The Saloon” – San Fran’s oldest bar – has live blues every night – awesome! Be warned it’s a bit dirty in there, especially the toilets which you descend into down a convoluted and precarious flight of steps.

I want to go back to Tahoe and do more of the resorts in the north. I reckon you need two weeks skiing to do it all; 1 week based in the north, then 1 in the south, topping off with a couple of days in San Francisco before you fly home.

That place is seriously good and i’m not envious! 😉

On top of all of these, Blencathra to the North of Keswich. This is another a quieter area and you can incorporate scrambling up Sharp Edge. It’s a little bit like Helvelyn’s Striding Edge. After you scale either of these, it’s somewhat flat on top, but views are Awesome. I’d avoid coming down Sharp Edge, especially in the wet.

Scafell is not going to be quiet. Everyone want to do this.

The Ennerdale horseshoe would be quiet, but you’d need a bit more time.

Langdale is a good, but again, very busy because it’s affords easy access to the highest peaks in the centre of the Lakes.

I haven’t done Conniston, but this is next on my list and looks a bit more off the beaten track.

If you want to get away from the crowds alltogether, try the Howgills instead.

If I was developing a grand design property, I would use a local architect largely for the benefit of their ongoing relationships with the planners and partly for their advice and recommendations.

I have qualifications in graphic design and know i could create something special and unique, that was tailored (in detail) to our needs.

I don’t think I’d want too much creative input, but the design process would be in close consultation with the architect. These guys have 7 years training and so know a great deal more about the subject than I do, but i’ve lived in several houses and know what works and what doesn’t. It would be a fascinating process to create a workable design, let alone the fun of the actual build.

I can’t afford it and my wife doesn’t share my passion for a project like this, so time to stop dreaming!