woodcock11

I think the issue here is that if you fall off steps & ladders, it is YOUR OWN fault and no-one else is involved . What we are looking at here is innocent people being killed or injured, either as pedestrians or as drivers or passengers in vehicles by mindless idiots who just think that they can ignore the speed limits - OK we all can think of places where a speed limit seems to be ridiculous and/or to drive at 80mph plus on a seemingly empty motorway appears to be OK but none of us are in possession of the full facts as to why a speed limit is in place - if we choose to ignore it and something goes wrong, then it will be on our consciences for the rest of our lives. Whatever, we should not whinge if we get caught and try to find a get out of jail free card - so to speak...

Munich is a beautiful city with stunning scenery around - the Bavarian Alps are fantastic and well worth a drive to - Garmisch Partenkirken, the scene of the Winter Olympics is a great place to see - funicular railway & cable car. http://www.gapa.de/ The German film museum at Munich is very interesting - scenes for the U Boat series Das Boot were filmed there http://www.muenchen.de/int/en/events/movie-broadcast/filmmuseum.html Also Munich is the home of BMW so if you or your friends are petrol heads, here goes http://www.bmw-welt.com/en/visitor_information/guided_tours/museum.html Gutes Reisen!

Maybe the good weather is a consolation prize after the European Election Results? Enough said......! Grass cutting here too today - seem it needs doing about every five days - warm weather and damp ground is a lethal combination

TREMENDOUS but I always thought of the Prime Minister with an orange rather than a green hue - and I am referring to his skin colour and NOT some sort of tribal Northern Ireland classification! Hope you are still enjoying wonderful Pembroke Dock weather - fabulous here today......

Thanks Kes - in a nutshell you have got it totally right....

You guys in Hartlepool certainly have a way with words - my English teacher [circa 1960] would NOT have approved......!!! This emoticon reminds me just a bit of Mr Farage.....

Dear Mungler Fortunately, there is no sort of self-selection process where a driver can decide if they can break the law or not - the police have an element of discretion [as has been posted already on this thread] but 40 in a 30 is just plain wrong - the signs are there for a reason and should be respected. It is not an a la carte menu where we can pick and choose and if you get caught breaking the law, then you have to just take the consequences. all the best

That I think is a pretty sensible prediction - more than we would like but better than the wilder suggestions of 40. Anyway we shall see and there is no doubt that UKIP will increase its representation - let us hope they will use it SENSIBLY and fight for the UKs best interests, rather than just either refuse to take part or else just act as a wrecking party. That way, they just might get some sort of recognition and not sink back into oblivion come the general election in 2015. They have to have constructive policies, rather than just be a one issue protest party - that will get them nowhere. And yes Poontang, I think that other Eurosceptic parties may do quite well also. However and if the EU disintegrates, we will be in for a period at least of total chaos and the US, Russia, China, Japan, India and others will make hay at the UK's and Europe's expense - these are deep and uncharted waters and they frighten me....

Sunny intervals and scattered showers - wind from the North East or North North East - maximum temperature 15 C is the prediction for here tomorrow - much as it was for today. And if you are talking about the European Elections, the predictions are Northern Ireland Constituency Democratic Unionists [DUP] 1 Ulster Unionists [uUP] 1 Sinn Fein [sF] 1 There is an outside possibility that the Social Democratic & Labour Party [sDLP] just might pip the Ulster Unionists but that would be a seismic shock indeed and would totally eclipse anything that UKIP might or might not achieve...... they will not win a seat here I suspect most of the results will not be known until MONDAY at the earliest as no counting can start in any EU member state until after the last polls have closed and la belle France and a number of other EU countries do not vote until tomorrow Sunday.

It is illegal to shoot jays in Northern Ireland and we are OVERRUN with them! However we are allowed to shoot jack snipe but cannot shoot any game on 1 February. We can shoot grouse as from 12 August but unlike Scotland, cannot shoot snipe until 1 September. We can shoot duck with lead shot except over wetlands. Until recently, it was illegal to sell hen pheasants and we cannot sell duck of any kind [including reared mallard ] even to a game dealer. A supermarket such as Sainsbury's or M&S has to have a licence to sell game..... The game licence has only just been abolished It is a funny old world - this so called United Kingdom

Yes Big Al you are right. HOWEVER and for far too long road traffic enforcement was not a priority in Northern Ireland as the police had far more important things to deal with - as a result, I believe that NI had one of the worst set of statistics for RTAs, fatalities & injuries, bearing in mind our small population, relatively uncrowded yet good road network and so it became a kind of little boy racers' paradise. Thankfully, those days are now over and PSNI are cracking down hard on drunk and dangerous driving and excessive speeding . From the posts this evening, it seems that most PW members have zero tolerance towards speeding - excellent - and we all know of tragedies that have been inflicted by those who thought they were God's gift to driving and could just ignore the speed limit - excuses, excuses, excuses - we have heard them all. Then for the OP who somehow thought he could get advice from PW Members on how to "get off" or mitigate his crime, only to be then told that he had been a very silly boy, and then to now slag them off - he should be thoroughly ashamed of himself - points and a fine and the stigma attached should be his due - no speed awareness course or mitigation - he shows little or any remorse for his irresponsible and stupid behaviour..... Man up and take the punishment - you were stupid, dangerous and just plain wrong.

Jaffa Cakes or plain chocolate digestives. MUST be McVities though....

The Celtic Tiger was doing quite nicely - however, land prices as you say just kept on going up and up and we could foresee that it was going to end in tears when the Banks just went on lending, lending, lending and the likes of Anglo Irish & RBS went spectacularly bust and had to be bailed out..... Anyway, it was not the fault - I believe - of the EU; I will stick with the banks!

No - I don't think so - the EU did its job and helped Ireland to get to first world status and a country that at last could be proud of itself and be treated by others including the UK as an equal. I am old enough to remember what Ireland was like in the 1950s & 1960s - cutesy, fabulous for tourists but basically uneconomic, old fashioned and with a government that was controlled by the church. Yes the wheels came off in 2008 - as they did in the UK - but this was down to the Banks [please don't get me started on them] and not the EU. Generally, Ireland is coming out of recession and the infrastructure is now largely in place to allow for a quick recovery - 750 km of motorways built in 10 years, fibre optic and super fast broadband and, above all, a young, educated, skilled and highly motivated workforce who conveniently happen to speak English and are the nearest landfall to the US - we can for example fly to Newark from Belfast in 5h30! All of this has helped relations between the UK and Ireland to develop to the cooperative & cordial relations that exist between our two countries today and why we no longer have soldiers on the streets in NI. I think that Scotland benefited well out of the EU - how was it in Wales?

Hi and good evening again Welsh 1 - WOW that is good news I am very, very happy that we have got things back on to an even keel - I will do all that I can to get us to 16 pages - it has been a good [in the main] experience so far. Since my last post, I have been thinking more about WALES and all that is good about the principality 1. I still think that Holyhead is a dump [sorry] however the Isle of Anglesey generally is stunning 2.I have spent many times there with family who lived there on the sea [literally] at Penrhos and in particular have fond memories of Rhosneigr and Treardurr Bay - the view in on the ferry from Dun Laoghaire or Dublin Port is stunning - also a win-win moment at I think Newborough Beach when we saw a car parked with anti field sports stickers in the window - I happened to have some Countryside Alliance leaflets and stickers with me which I discretely place on that car 3. I have had the great good fortune to be invited to a driven shoot in mid Wales twice [Nantyr & Croggan] - fantastic shooting, great scenery - what more could one want? I have also been thinking more about your comment on NORTHERN IRELAND and about the bad bits. OK, I think that in County Down we are very fortunate - largely rural with plenty of coast line and the Mourne Mountains in the South - the fields are not over large, we can grow grass in spades, which is great for dairy cows, beef cattle & sheep but we are not in a great place for growing cereals - too wet and not enough sunshine and warmth. The border areas were kind of tricky for many years not only in Down but also in Armagh & Fermanagh - many on P/W who served in the forces [incl me] will know about that, which was a pity as the countryside is outstandingly beautiful and for those that fish for wild brown trout, the opportunities in loughs and rivers were superb- thankfully and thanks to progress, that is now all in the past and we can enjoy that again. Otherwise, I believe that we enjoy a very good quality of life - there are no areas of abject poverty and no signs of industrial decline [ we did not suffer for example form the decimation of the coal industry]. We have benefitted hugely from EU and US money to get us back on an even keel and to learn to love each other [hence why others may think that we rather unfashionably like the US and the European Union] I guess that is why we tend to differ from you guys across the water -we now have at least a chance for peace and reconciliation [after 30 years of close to Civil War] and so we do truly appreciate the support that the EU has given us -at the same time, it has done such a lot for our cousins in the Irish Republic and has enabled them to interact with Britain with much more confidence. I know from speaking with friends & family in England, Wales & Scotland that it is hard for them to understand but we are so mightily thankful for that support. Your photo of the band of HM Royal Marines at Pembroke Dock brought back some good memories as well - they did a very successful tour in County Fermanagh in I think it was 1991/2 - very appropriate as they has assault ribs on Lough Erne - and the band came and played to huge acclaim in Enniskillen. So and as you will guess, I enjoy and truly appreciate the repartee between us and if FM & I can help all of our causes to get to 16 pages [please elucidate on the Holy Grail aspect - will that be a record if the Mods do not pull the plug]. However, I am sorry but I cannot see any reason for changing my mind and voting for UKIP - I do not honestly think that you will be surprised by that but it will be largely irrelevant here in NI - we have a plethora of parties & candidates standing apart from UKIP and some of them make Nige and his followers [almost but not quite] plausible Here we go http://tuv.org.uk/ They are true nutcases..... All the very best and good evening

I am sorry that you are unable to take the SPIRIT of my e-mail - it was meant to be friendly and I hope if you read it again, you may think so as well. I meant what I said about the photographs that you posted before - the scenery is stunning - dockyards & ports can be grim but I guess if they are now being enhanced for their heritage - I have seen Portsmouth recently and Chatham and the one on Sheppey - Sheerness? are also much improved. Closer to home, the port of Belfast is being transformed - not yet to the standards of London, but we are making progress.... HMS Caroline [WW I cruiser] is being restored to its former glory - the Nomadic [tender to the Titanic] has been restored and we have a world class visitor centre in Titanic Belfast, which attracted over 1 million visitors in the first 15th months of opening and is now running at around 800,000 per year. I am surprised by your use of the word "common man" - that is rather old fashioned and I take the view that all men are equal, unless prove otherwise. Shooting is a great leveller and a very democratic sport and a perfect example of that...... The Band of HM Royal Marines is always a sight to behold So whilst I disagree with you on your views on UKIP, I am sure there are many things on which you and I would agree - I hope you will take these comments in the way that they are intended - if not, I will leave it at that [huge sigh of relief all round] - and yes we have got to 13 pages!

What lovely photographs - you do indeed live in a beautiful part of the world and I would not deny that. However, your home is shown as "Pembroke" rather than Pembrokeshire, which I have visited and much enjoy. I don't think anyone would describe Pembroke Dock as being a nice place to live - and it was to there that I was referring... It is a fact of life that most ferry ports are pretty grim - just think - Dover, Holyhead, Stranraer, Cairnryan and Larne over here - if you had to live in these towns, I think you would lose the will to live.... however, and without exception, they are surrounded by stunning countryside in which both you & I are fortunate enough to live - the sight of sea or water from one's home is most uplifting. In fact are there are pleasant major ferry ports - and I exclude those serving the Highlands & Islands - Hmmmm...... Harwich is probably the nicest that I can think of - I think Weymouth is just about closed as a terminal these days. Nial - not you - refers to "insults" - no that is a nonsense. Just because I think that your policies are "misguided" does not mean that I would ever wish to insult you - you make your case well enough, it is just that I believe it to be wrong - I have in a previous post referred to you as "my friend" and it was not said with sarcasm in mind. Anyway all is not lost as you go on to say that a vote for UKIP is a " protest vote". Fine - a clutch of UKIP MEPs next week will change nothing - like it or not - and as with all protest votes, normal service will be resumed in due course. One aside that I will make - and it probably has not registered hugely in GB is that the fact that the UK and Ireland both being members of the European Union has been a major factor in ensuring the relatively peaceful situation that we now enjoy in Northern Ireland, reinforced by the hugely successful visit of Her Majesty to Ireland in 2011 and of the President to Britain this year.

No dear boy - I do not misunderstand you - you have been hoisted by your own petard and caught out good & proper - hence this very, very lame & confused response - you are out of ideas, just like the party that you now profess to love to bits - I know that Pembroke is kind of dull - the best thing about it is or was the ferry port to Ireland - so I guess you have to latch on to something. One thing that worries me about all you guys is that you hark back to the word "FEAR" - politics is not about the word "fear" - that is what smacks of desperation and I will leave that thought with you as you make your Horlicks or whatever and head off to bed.......

Yes please - will pay for postage & packing happily - we are a part of the UK! Just found a surviving elm with some seedlings around it but new stock would be fantastic.......

What you just do not get, my friend, is that there are a lot of intelligent P/W members out there who will not be posting on this topic but will be reading and assimilating the arguments for and against UKIP & Mr Farage.... Neither you nor I can assume how many of these interested observers will vote for UKIP or will vote for one of the other political parties next week - the fact that the thread has got to 11 pages is something to celebrated - it has - in the main - been a civilised and thoughtful debate and I have no doubt that one or two voters who may have been unsure how to cast their vote may well have been influenced either by the pro or the anti UKIP arguments. So, I am sorry but I don't think those of us who disagree with you are worthy of your heartfelt thanks..... All the best

Please let me not ache so much after a full on day's gardening......

Lots of nurseries etc pack & post trees - put damp roots in a little soil into a plastic bag and lightly tie tree to a cane and cover in bubble wrap, a polythene tree shelter or similar and put in a jiffy bag or wrap in brown paper & tape and then post - it works pretty well. OK there is work involved but hopefully the lucky recipients of your precious trees will either reimburse you or, if you wish, make a donation to a suitable charity. It is just an idea but it would be lovely if the labours of love could spread out and be enjoyed across the country.....

So you read it on line then - what is the difference? HOWEVER you UKIP guys make a big deal of Farage and his mates being the new kids on the block, squeaky clean - good old Nige and all that sort of rubbish but he and his party are no better than any of the other parties and at 30% MEPs gone, busted or whatever are probably a whole lot worse - I will leave it to you to work out the figures and yes - according to those who were at the top of UKIP but have now seen through the sham, apparently the way to become a UKIP MEP or candidate is to buy your way in - £10,000 for starters - even the belted Earl of Dartmouth eventually paid up - somewhat reluctantly it has to be said as he coughed up £3K to start with and after being lent on by Nige's rottweilers handed over the remaining £7K. The difference, oh Welsh wizard, is that we who think UKIP are rubbish don't blindly follow the other political parties - be they Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat or Green - we know and acknowledge that none of them are perfect. You by contrast blindly follow everything that UKIP has to offer - that, my friend, is downright dangerous and events in history have proved that to be the case.... If the sheep truly want to jump over a cliff, then you may well do quite well in the European elections but make the most of it as that will be your high water mark - it will be a protest vote - no more & no less and reality will set in come the General Election in 2015 - if the economy continues to recover - and surely we must all hope that it will - then the party or parties who are providing the policies to ensure that will surely deserve to benefit. I leave you with those home truths to reflect on - good night. + 1 - totally demented like his "masters"

aaah! - How VERY exciting - an endangered species - someone who reads the Daily Express......

What a guy - what an inspiration to us all