JohnfromUK

Defiantly their 'style', and the article I read hinted that is the 'official thinking'. If it is the case, nothing is likely to be done and it will quietly disappear from the news.

I have a Defender 90. Bought it when it was 3 years old - and it's now 30 years old and still with me. Not been welded yet, but getting near on the rear cross member. 200tdi engine and LT77 gearbox both fine despite engine output raised by Allards (bigger intercooler and boost pressure) and running on LWB sized 7.50 tyres (gives higher gearing). Anything marked Lucas is risky (had a new starter, and various other electricals). Never let me down yet in 27 years and 100K miles. Comfortable enough if you are the right size, very uncomfortable for the tall or large. Some built in features - leaks water in, head linings sag, lights (standard) hopelessly bad by modern standards, wipers poor, heater poor. Appreciating in value, and still up with the best off road. Biggest problem these days is stopping it getting stolen.

Both have lovely wood on them.

Thanks. I do use a 'Disklok' on my 1993 Defender. When I bought it in 1995 it was a 'stolen recovery'! Not really sure the Disklok helps and it is a bit 'tedious' to use, but I see it as a deterrent.

Out of interest, is this the 'old' or 'new' Defender? I know both are attractive targets for theft.

I have (an earlier edition of) the one you pictured. It is a very good and comprehensive book - but I do find it a little 'overkill' in that there are a LOT of birds not seen in the UK. My copy (around 20 years old) has been invaluable, but I too now use a phone App.

It is - and she may have chosen it for reasons that the 'Fula' are a 'tribe' who have an Islamic background and are almost exclusively Muslim. That may be important to her 'networking'.

In fact the good lady, Lady Susan Hussey, has been quietly (but quite rightly in my view) reinstated as part of the Royal's team. She was using the name Ngosi Fulani - but she was originally christened Marlene Headley. The names she uses now are of West African tribal origin apparently.

When talking about the Spanish guns, one has to bear in mind that 'quality' need to be more than skin deep. For two examples, in my view (and these are my own views) - An AyA Yeoman, though 'basic, no frills', is actually made from decent materials, and whilst not highly finished, is well put together. Popular guns and deservedly so. A 'highly spec'd' sidelock, Spanish made and proofed, but bearing an "English" sounding name - heavily advertised and promoted in the UK some years ago (and very 'cheap' for what they purported to be). It has all the 'features', but the wood is poor, the wood to metal fit is poor, the engraving is profuse, but crudely executed, internals are crude and badly finished and (apparently) the metal material is 'soft'. I knew someone who owned one and it was forever in trouble with broken springs, 'mushroomed' and bent metal parts. Fortunately I don't think they are trading now, but there are some about and some of their models were better than others (came from several different Spanish sources I believe). As has been mentioned earlier, care is needed because the same 'name' can be different workshops and they are not all as well made as might be assumed.

100% agree.

My house has heat recovery fans for the bathrooms fitted above the bathrooms in the loft space. One of these makes a low hum which very strangely is louder and more noticeable in the ground floor room below the bathroom but not nearly as much in the bathroom itself which is directly underneath the ventilation unit and has air ducts to it. I can only assume some resonance in the house structure causes this. It's not a problem as the fan only runs when the bathroom lights are used and for a few minutes afterwards.

To get a Party of 'your views' in power as a Government, you need a near full set of candidates for General Election, - probably around 650 of them - funded and 'organised' by a 'party' structure to give consistency, organisation etc. That party needs to win in around 315+ constituencies under our system (first past the post). To get a win, you need to have policies that will cause probably an average of 15,000 to 20,000 votes for your candidate. So broadly and approximately - you need to attract around 10-12 million people to vote for you. There will be a significant portion of voters who will always vote for the same 'left' or 'right' party. Always have, always will. Its the people who are in the middle (called 'swing voters') who actually choose the winning candidate - hence it is to them your party must appeal. Parties that are too far away from the central ground simply won't attract the votes of the swing voters. It is a fine line to tread to satisfy both the swing voters (who are essential for a win) AND those on the left or right - and in general, those 'away from the centre (either way)' are more likely to be solid reliable voters (for whichever side), simply because they have had nowhere else to go. Hence the reason Sunak and Starmer both have to play for the middle ground. It's those pesky 'swing voters' that they both have to attract.

He is perfectly entitled to change his mind (or jump ship onto the next one) - as he clearly has done twice now. He will likely move again if he things it will benefit him. I vote for a person whose views agree with my own and he/she is prepared to represent those views in Parliament. I wouldn't vote for someone who just changes with the way the wind is blowing today.

America is much more focussed on rewarding success than we are ........... but it's not a good place to be 'unsuccessful'.

In the UK, both property and farmland are extortionately expensive. Property due to short supply. Farmland (at least in part) due to it being an escape route available to very wealthy people who can tie up money in unproductive assets for the UK's very high (and much hated) inheritance tax. America is a rich country and those who find a niche for their skills/product/service and are prepared to put in the work can do very well and are not penalised by a taxation system like ours which preys on success and stifles enterprise.

To those who know more than me (which will be many) please feel free to correct! CANbus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN_bus) is a system which 'connects' all of the "separate electrical sub-assemblies" of an electrical/electronic nature into a 'Controller Area Network'. It enables all "separate electrical sub-assemblies" to be CANbus connected and so controlled and monitored centrally. Such things as reporting bulb failures in the case of light units. Unfortunately (in my very limited personal experience of my recently departed BMW), most fault reports are incorrect (I had many tens of 'bulb failure reports' but only one actual failed bulb). Even more unfortunately, error reports and even false error reports are an MoT FAIL. To be fair - the BMW worked well for it's first 14 years or so before the system began to get senile. Faults can be read on a 'fault code reader' on an OBD port which allows all of the fault data collected by the CANbus to be collected by the garage to allow the bill to be suitably inflated. My personal experience is that when it works, it works very well, but when it starts playing up it is way beyond what garage mechanics/technicians can cope with and can prove hugely expensive to sort out.

Yes, regular thing on my 1993 Defender. Lucas tail light fittings, especially the stop/tail light one side and the reverse light. Usually just a clean up of the contacts. Where Lucas used to get such bad metal from is a mystery ......... This was a friends Discovery 5 - where the whole large light assembly - which is around the size of a biscuit tin - I assume his price is dealer inc fitting as the part ('genuine' part from an indie on the internet) is £293.47 plus VAT plus freight. It has a circuit board and various sundry 'canbus' electronics which may (or may not) do something more valid that push the price up - though I can't imagine what that would be. But it is the cost of items like that - easily damaged in car parks - that push up the insurance - because IF you are paying that sort of price for simple parts, suddenly an insurance claim becomes a possibility rather than just fixing it yourself.

/\. This. I was speaking to someone the other day who had had a 'minor' light failure on his car; not accident damage, but just a tail light not working (intermittently flickering). The whole assembly had to be replaced because the fault was with the 'canbus' parts. £600 and weeks wait for the part. Fortunately he was still under warranty, but the days of replacing a tail light lens/cover assembly damaged in a parking mishap for a few £ are gone now with these complex 'canbus' lighting systems apparently.

It has always been the case that for some people doing 'financial transactions', a degree of record keeping and understanding of the rules is needed to ensure that you remain on the right side of the law. Just as when driving, where you need to understand the 'rules of the road' and have in place suitable licenses, permissions, insurance as applicable to what you are doing - when buying and selling you also need to understand the 'rules'. The tax system has been so much 'fiddled', and 'avoided', by so many that HMRC are trying to up their game in making sure those who should pay .... do pay. The fallout from this is that those who are genuinely not liable for tax may have to keep sufficient records to be able to demonstrate that. When I ran a shoot business some years ago, we registered as a business, registered for VAT, had proper accounts prepared and it was "a business". Depending on how good your own book keeping was, the accountants will need a few hours to translate your books into the correct 'formal accounts' as needed. Some shoots that used various 'dodgy techniques' and operated as a 'non business' to avoid tax and VAT etc. got into trouble, because when investigated it clearly was a business. Everyone needs to understand the rules. If you don't need to pay tax on your activities, but you are doing a level of selling that might be around of above the figures given above, it would be a good plan to be able to explain that and have suitable 'records' to show that. IF you had to employ an accountant, it would certainly be 'a few hours', and I guess most will charge around £100 - 150 an hour.

Family (my father) had a 4x4 from around 1960 to circa 1985. Series 1 petrol, two Series 2A diesels, Range Rover Classic 4 door (dreadfully unreliable and thirsty), and a short spell with a Daihatsu 4 Track (surprisingly good off road and 100% reliable, but horribly uncomfortable). I personally have had a 1952 Series 1 (bought 1980 ish), a G-wagen 280 GEL (desperately thirsty, poor on road, good off road), BMW X5 (very good on road, very comfortable, poor off road) and my current Defender 90, bought 1995 and still owned. The Defender has very recently been joined by a Land Cruiser which has replaced my 17 year old BMW 3 series touring.

They want to come to Britain for several reasons; As has been said above - English is reasonably understood in most 'source' countries The smugglers tell them they will easily get asylum residency granted, get legal assistance, get pocket money and hotel until asylum approved (which is basically true) and probably give them the contact details of suitable immigration lawyers (who are only to glad to help as it can be well paid). They are told that the UK has much the best 'welcome' - which is also probably largely true. They are likely to have relatives/friends/contacts already here The French have quite successfully made the refugee camps there VERY uncomfortable (muddy tented shanty towns) - whereas we give them decent accommodation I entirely agree with the comment from @johnphilip above - where do they get the money to pay the smugglers (and the mobile phone contracts etc.)?

AI does a better job than that!

Yes, that's how it is round here. Another 'gripe' I have with the council - despite the mildest winter on record, and only very few frosts all winter we (the unclassified road I live on) have had regular copious dressings of salt. It has been applied 4 evenings out of the last 6 (there was a very light frost one night which was also the only night frost was forecast). The salt kills the grass verges which allows vehicles to damage the (un-kerbed) road edges. I was particularly riled one evening as the dog and I were showered in salt as they applied it. They say they have no money, but hardly economise by only applying salt when the forecast indicates it will be needed. I have lost 18" of grass verge adjacent to my garden wall that is now a muddy rutted mess.

There is a part of the community closely associated with caravans .............

Companies like Heinnie Haynes made provision for this a while ago when age checking became a thing. https://heinnie.com/blog/age-verified-delivery-for-knives/