Vince Green

We received four Christmas cards yesterday

This ^^^^ The NHS blames everybody but themselves for their own internal problems. Yet they do absolutely nothing to address them. The answer is simple, they need to get a grip on what is going wrong not bleat about how unfair it all is.

Isn't there a lake behind the hospital? Don't know about the parking

The WHO is estimating 5000 deaths a day in China at the moment. Mainly in the cities

One of the prime reasons I voted for Brexit was because I could see first hand the effects a massive glut of cheap labour was having Why pay a decent wage if there are people more than happy to work for peanuts?

It's the reason I will never have another dog

Yes I think the world was a different place back then and it was a better time Train drivers often kept a single barrel .410 for much the same reason. Better by far

My shooting mate Colin (now deceased) was a trackside electrician. All his working life he kept a (legally owned) demountable. 22 rifle to shoot rabbits at work in his rucksack and he shot thousands He kept the whole shift supplied I'm not saying he didn't do his job properly but they often had a lot of spare time on their hands clearly

So true

That's largely because no government has control of the external factors that drive our economy any more. America and Europe both going the same way.

Even worse Them that are making money out of it

Nieve Henry very Nieve. Ridiculously nieve in fact. That may have been almost possible in 1700s when a farmer grew his crops and sold them off the back of his cart in the local market town. Then went back to his farm and paid his workers. Today the food we eat is largely produced abroad. The clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the fuel that runs the cars and the coal that powers our power station all comes from abroad. Totally out of any control by us socialist or otherwise. You talk of true socialist control. That's a pipe dream. We have no ability to control our economy because its not "our" economy to control Socialism is a nice idea but it belongs in the past as an anachronism

Yes agreed when I used to have a house in South Wales, all the front doors opened onto the pavements. There must be millions of houses like that. No way can it ever work for them either This has not been thought through at all. If its obvious to us why isn't it obvious to those pushing it forward.

EXACTLY! You don't bite the hand that feeds you

It's very easy to make socialism sound very principled and totally believable. That's why so many students and nieve do gooder fall for it Hook line and sinker. The trouble comes when you try to put it into practice. One man's pay increase becomes another man's price increase. So he now requires a pay increase too, and so it goes on. Until you run into massive inflation and everything collapses because now most financial pressure are now global. You cannot control UK wages (or anything) from within the borders of the UK The world cannot work that way. The only way you can do it half right is monetarism, the free market, call it what you will. Its tough, cruel at times and imperfect. Everyone sells their labour for what they can get for it.

"Should" is the word. When your licence has expired it has expired and technically that's the end of it. You can hope common sense would prevail but it's a vulnerable time.

With all the delays in renewing FACs and SGCs at the moment it could be worryingly easy for any of us to end up on the wrong side of the law without really trying

There is a Tesla charging point at Westbourne near Bournemouth. There is often a queue to use it in the summer. If you are waiting there to get on the charging point you will be on a double yellow line and causing a bit of a hold up. That link you posted showed South Mimms Services. You get a £60 fine if you stay there more than two hours. So add that into the cost of a six hour wait. This Christmas we are staying with my mother in law 'Granny sitting'. It's a residential South London suburb I have already seen two charging cables stretched across pavements and I have not been out and about that much. Is that what we have to expect now ? I can see arguments developing where people start saying "you can't park there, I need to charge my car" Round here you are lucky if you can find a parking space in the same road. When we came back from my stepdaughter's the other night I had to drop my wife and MIL off and drive round looking for a space. There is no practical way any of the residents round here are ever going to be able to own an electric car.

The other problem in supermarkets like the ALDI near us is that they put the charging points right near the entrance door. When I go there to shop I have noticed that most of the cars parked on the charging points are not even electric cars. It's just a convenient place for lazy people to park. So that isn't going to work for electric car owners wanting a charge When my mother was alive I used to get really cross when the same thing happened with disabled spaces.

It's the same sort of thing but they are foreign very foreign and they don't open the door. What they have done with my rawlbolts or a new battery for the burglar alarm I can't imagine

My mate Gordon did the same on his regular North London to South Wales trip to visit family in his new Nissan Leaf. He got as far as Leigh Dellamare services on the M4 and was out of charge. Probably because he had the aircon full on, it was the middle of summer. Over an hour to recharge but he was low again by the time he got to Aberdare. He had to limp it to a supermarket to charge it again. He didn't keep the car long and said afterwards that every time he drove it he spent the entire time watching that needle and getting tense.

I have had similar problems getting stuff delivered to our address. We live a 4 xxxxx Court, the lady who lived a 4 xxxxx Way used to get a lot of our stuff delivered to her but she always brought it round. Then she died and the people in there now keep everything and won't even answer the door to us. So now, whenever possible we get stuff delivered to a pick up point or a local convenience store. That seems to work.

The problem with electric cars in the winter is not just charging You are running a heater, and more often than not lights and wipers as well. All draining the battery This can seriously reduce the maximum operating range. Sometimes by half

Somebody I used to work with though it would be a good idea to become a volunteer car driver for the local hospital when he retired He didn't stay long, he soon came to realise a lot of the people he was driving around were just taking him for a mug. If its free and its available some people will always try it on

That's about what it costs in Ireland and people pay it happily enough