konabunny – I don’t think your Thatcherism will be very popular in iScotland.

I just don’t feel like being given a hard time for it or being told it’s the other way round.

Not many have given you a hard time though. Most people seem to agree that it’s not really a valid argument and the figures can be used to show different things.

You don’t create jobs by having the government employ more people.

A lot of left wing politicians would disagree with you there. AS included.

I am not really debating the “military-industrial complex”.

I was simply highlighting that there are a large number of public sector jobs and connected jobs that will be lost in an iScotland. Many of these are well paid, secure and with good pensions.

FWIW I would much prefer to live in a World without nuclear weapons or any significant military spending. I agree that if we diverted the military spending into more productive areas then things would be a lot better. However, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

I find Meteogroup give very accurate forecasts. They have this site for land forecasts.

Weathercast[/url]

They also do a brilliant app for marine forecasts, I have been on jobs offshore where they were providing very expensive bespoke forecasts for the site, which were almost identical to the info given for free on the app. Meteo Group

Those are all things that cost more money than they generate and lose more jobs than they create.

Thanks for that. I didn’t realise that nuclear subs didn’t carry many fare paying passengers.

How do they “lose more jobs than they create”?

Winston_dog, none of those things support what you’re claiming, sorry.

I am not “claiming” anything.Some things are already quite clear and are declared policies both sides of the border.

If you vote “Yes” then it is quite clear the nuclear subs will have to be based elsewhere. That is not for debate. This will basically mean a much reduced Faslane Naval Base. Loss of a lot of jobs.

BAE is kept alive by building RN warships, the UK will not give that work to a Foreign country. That is not for debate. The yard will close. Loss of a lot of jobs.

Will you get sufficient flue height for draw?

Mine draws perfectly. Much better than the lined chimney it replaced. I think the 1.5m of stove pipe in the room really helps.

It really won’t.

So your keeping the nukes then?

You keeping the all the RAF bases and the aircraft?

You keeping all those soldiers who are in Scottish regiments?

You going to keep building warships on the Clyde?

I have just fitted a flue in a bungalow. The flue cost about £650 to buy.

Stayed away from HETAS as the labour cost was just silly. I was getting a load of other building work done at the time and just got my builders to fit it. The biggest job was sorting the roof out, I reckon the guys did a better job than a “typical” HETAS fitter as it isn’t really a technical job more “building” work.

The flue was designed to be building reg compliant.

I did have an issue with the building control officer being a knob mind…..

If other people make spurious points about Scotland being subsidised do you think it’s best to come back with your own spurious point about how it’s actually the other way round?

When did I say it was the other way round? AFAIK it is a very difficult thing to measure with any accuracy.

The point I was making and have done on several occasions,is that it is a pointless argument, the vast majority of Countries have areas that produce a larger % of GDP, in the UK London produces a huge amount of our wealth but is only 10% of the population. Go to Italy and the North “carries” a very poor Southern area. It’s how countries work.

An iSCotland would have Aberdeen producing far more per head than even the Central Belt. So what?

What may be an issue is the amount of public sector dependent jobs that Scotland currently have, particularly regarding the military which will disappear if they vote “Yes”.

You do realise winston_dog raised the issue in the first place? Who’s banging on about it exactly?

No I didn’t. I was on about a currency union post Independence.

The issue that was raised by ben was about the current situation.

The Book of Dreams only applies if Scotland are independent, it appears that a lot of what is in there is pie in the sky and I don’t want a currency union with an unsupportable economy.

Its worth looking up some of the studies if you doubt the effect of statins on populations. A significant number of people are around today because statins prevented an event (or more) that would have seen them die.

There seems to be a lot of “bad science” behind the whole “cholesterol is bad for you” debate.

The doctor who does my work medical says it’s a load of bollocx and isn’t a major factor and also statins are really bad for you but my GP wanted to put me on statins when my cholesterol was at the high end of normal.

Makes you think.

At the moment Scotland subsidises the rest of the UK – we contribute 9.9% of the taxes but get back 9.2% of the spending.

Not this shit again!

I vote for the Republic of Grampian and the Free City of London!

everyone sensible (the banks, Carney etc)

Those trusty bankers, they never mess things up do they?

it could cost English taxpayers quite a bit if English oil and utility companies suddenly have to start buying in a foreign currency.

Not as much as subsidising the Book of Dreams.

Surely if this is such a factor then you would be better off in the Euro anyway?

making sick people better!!

Do statins do that? Serious question.

I’m eagerly waiting for Osborne to explain why the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles can’t use the pound.

Ben – I thought you wanted independence not to be a Crown Dependency? :-)

if the devolution with Scotland goes ahead?

Where have you been for the last 16 years?

Why does everyone think that there would be border controls in the event of independance? There aren’t any on the UKs other land border so why would there be one on this one?

I don’t. Although “no border controls” policy only exist when the bordering nation is a member of the EU.

However, it may be that Scotland will not be a member of the EU….

All 3 parties agree on something. Therefore it must be more English nastiness and propaganda to keep those poor Scots down.

Surely Call Me Dave would love to get rid of all those non-Tory voters? So why is he against it? – Possibly Scottish independence is a stupid and expensive idea?

kevj – That makes sense.

Although without getting too pedantic your post made it sound like you would be issuing the cert and not LR or DNV. :-)

I don’t think there are any standard European requirements for specialist offshore equipment and no government department would really have the expertise to set any, so CE markings cannot apply. That’s where the likes of LR or DNV come in.

If you were making numerous identical systems I would guess you get them “type approved” by them, so you wouldn’t need to get an IVB cert for each one.

An IVB cert is different though. I hope you are charging the client for this. £4500 plus your time depending on scope.

How can you issue IVB certification for your own equipment?

its parts for a rig, ancillary equipment, hot ducts (600 deg) etc.

By the sounds of it they will have to be made to an approved standard. Have a look at that DNV site.

If you are talking about the standard of construction of the actual platforms and rigs then this controlled by a marine classification society, such as Lloyds, as mentioned above.

There are others such as DNV or ABS.

DNV have a lot of info on the web here

Is it just me or is the interactive map not very interactive?

But, the vast majority of modern cars have fuel economies that were unthinkable 10-15 years ago

True. But why not combine it with lighter and smaller vehicles and get more benefit?

Cars are just getting bigger all the time, take a current BMW 5 series, it is the size of a 7 series of only a few years ago. Also, have you noticed how tight old 60’s and 70’s multi storey car parks are for modern cars?

Also was there anything Man did on the moon that a machine couldn’t do?

A person is way better than any robot for “doing stuff”.

e.g. In 1990 I remember being told that within 10 years there would be no more diving in the North Sea, they would all be replaced by ROV’s, both cheaper and safer. Well 20+ years later and dive vessels are as busy as they have ever been.

Doesn’t solve the radiation problem mind!

We need to reduce our overall consumption on everything not just cars.

Everything we have now is bigger and more powerful. Look around a modern house and there is just loads of stuff that wasn’t there 30 years ago. Look at how big things like fridges are, wifi routers on all the time, numerous “boxes” in your living room when you used to have 2 max.

“Back in the day” a car with 130hp was considered powerful, a XR3i only had 105hp and that was considered fast, it did only weigh about a tonne though. A current Foucs ST has 220hp and weighs nearly 1.5t. It probably has similar fuel consumption as well.

Offshore wind takes huge quantities of steel, concrete, carbon fibre, oil, ships and manpower to build. It is doubtful that the vast majority will be carbon neutral at the end of their working lives.

At the heart of the problem, apart from their construction, is you are putting a complex electro mechanical system a few metres above the North Sea and expecting to be reliable. EG There are numerous gearbox failures which are incredibly expensive and resource hungry to fix. Even a simple problem that would require one man in a van to fix onshore, requires several people and a boat to fix.

The climate is changing and man must be adding to it.

However, I fell like we are being conned by buying into some of the crap that gets sold to us as green.

Hybrid cars – How can lugging around a load of batteries that are heavy and expensive be “green”?

Offshore wind – Utter nonsense.

Car scrapping scheme – Scrap working machines to buy brand new ones that are slightly more efficient.

There are plenty more examples.

What is the H&S nonsense you suggested in the headline? I would hardly call investigating 4 deaths in the workplace nonsense.

Never said that.

The nonsense is trying to deflect the blame on to the dead blokes by inferring they were being slack by not wearing PPE and that he had questioned them about their procedures. However,in true STW manner, I may of taken this out of context and jumped on the soundbites in the BBC article.

What pisses me off is ineffective H&S where companies seem to think that the more paperwork and mandatory PPE the better.

but how the media go into more of a frenzy when it affects London directly.

It hasn’t affected London directly.

I am fully aware of where London is Mr Winston.

The news yesterday was plastered with reports of the Thames flooding, perhaps you missed it?

You might know where London is but you obviously don’t know the path of the Thames.

We may hear a lot more about it, now that the Londoners are starting to be affected!

The Somerset floods have been headlines for a couple of weeks!

Datchet isn’t really London either. Geography fail!

The climate never stops changing

If you go to Orkney there are the remains of a 4500 yr old settlement. Now it seems to be widely agreed that the climate in that region at that time was a lot warmer and generally much more pleasant.

So what caused the change? It was hardly the greenhouse gas emissions of neolithic man was it?

An old mates dad won the final in about 1990.

I think anyone who thinks the Soviet’s were not as bad as the Germans during WW2 hasn’t read enough history. As for saying the Germans started it – which bit?

I have read loads on this.

I never said that the USSR weren’t as bad as the Germans.

However, I did say that the Germans committed atrocities against the Russians first.

Europe was on the brink of war several times before the invasion of Poland, this was due to the aggression of the Germans. It was only the policy of appeasement by the Brits and the French that stopped a war earlier in the decade. It is very simplistic to say the Germans started it but their aggression was the key factor.

That policeman is pretty thick.

Can we also put down surplus apostrophes – humanely – too?

Can we also put down surplus “O” – humanely – to?