LeadWasp

Capability gap - relying on equipment yet to enter service. (and also relying on the fleet auxiliary to do naval tasks when they've been on a pay freeze since 2010 and folk are understandably leaving)

Saved from the 2010 General Election. Posted as relevant to taxation.

There's a very dangerous confusion about at the moment concerning the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. I first really became aware of it's insideousness with Comrade Corbyn, this idea that having money is bad and you must give more and more to the state. Tax evasion breaks the law. Tax avoidance is lawful and most sensible people practice it in some way or another. The car you choose, if your parents leave a property when they die (the law allows you to avoid paying tax below a certain amount), duty free is a big one etc. It's just a question of by how much. If it's now becoming thought of as a crime to some (when we all do it) then how much of a crime is acceptable...a little one or a Clarkson sized one? We need to be careful of being hypocrites. Tax avoidance is simply putting your money where the government hasn't thought to get it yet. After all it really isn't theirs is it! So how much money is too much to have? How much property is too much to have? Where is the line drawn? Careful because that tax bar might lower one day to cover us. As a last point you can't really think of 'family farms' like other businesses. Using a factory analogy you can't continue to make cars if you're forced to sell of a chunk of the production line to pay tax. Conventional businesses can cope with buy and sell and reinvestment/borrowing to cover a tax cost. Family groups on low profit margins will struggled to pay that tax without selling something - and the farm becomes less viable or just has to go. New individual farmers will struggle to buy into that land as new owners so large investors will step in. Then our food production and countryside goes under the cosh of big business. We will have limited food choices and no price control.

On a more serious note, apart from the fact that they are dangerous because they know no better I'd feel really very sorry for the poor N Koreans. More victims in this pointless agression.

It pays to be carefull with radio messages (the old 'send three and fourpence')...but for a burst of static the Russians would have found out that it was crack one off troops they were being offered 😇

He may well mean the parcel courier bombs and the scent of Nina Ricci comrade Pushkin.

Europe has a population of around 740 million and a GDP 8-10 times greater than Russia. If Europe can't step up then it does it deserve a happy ending?

We gave our old heavy lumps away. Rapid, further, agile, more productive and geographically unpredictable are current trends for 'heavier' equipment in the age of systems like Excaliber. Perhaps another layer is about due for the survivability 'onion'. If you must be there don't be where you were a minute ago! Archer is a classic example. The 14 systems are more than an equivalent for the 20 functioning AS90's we donated. We also gave our life expiring stuff away too. Of course none of this is important to those with tendencies towards vassalage.

Note to Putin (and others) - very few dictators live to old age. Their demise is usually painful, humiliating and terrifying for them.

Programming is no different to assembling so we crossed that particular Rubicon 2 years ago. Putin's logic constructs an argument that N Korea Iran and China are targets too now therefore...N Korean and Iran will probably get off on that idea whereas China is the adult in the axis of evil. Trump is a bully like Putin so fundamentally a coward. You could see that cowardice in his meeting with Biden (as in so many actual meetings with people he's previously been vile about). A coward's settlement won't ultimately end in peace.

Of course it's an inconvenient truth that most of that money is spent on US arms in the US. Don't forget that everytime Ukraine fires a shell the Scranton plant makes some money and an employee has another dollar to buy a MAGA cap to shade their eyes from reality. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6350087993112 for example.

Is your land agriculturally rated for planning purposes? If it's not in production could it be classed as set-aside? You won't be able to used red around stables/livery yards or anything horsey other than fodder production.

If the OP meets the requiremetns he won't be 'dodging tax', simply avoiding it as the law allows. Most people practice tax avoidance throughout the year - it is lawful and not immoral. When someone factors, for example, car tax into a choice of purchase that is a form of tax avoidance. Savings, inheritance planning and so on are all forms of lawful (and sensible) tax avoidance. Tax evasion is another matter and increasingly these days people are almost deliberately confusing the two. If someone has a tractor, classed as Agricultural and thus zero rated for road tax the law allows them to use red diesel for agricultural or forestry purposes provided they meet the categories shown in this article. https://www.fwi.co.uk/machinery/red-diesel-rule-changes-hmrc-spells-out-dos-and-donts

As long as you are using the machine for agricultural purposes you are entitled to use red diesel. Making hay? That's agriculture so you'd be fine. The biggest problem is finding red now that plant hire places have stopped carrying 20l cans because construction equipment can't use it. If you have a tank which can take a minimum 500l delivery by tanker then you're OK...or a friendly local farmer.

Hey there, hope all is well your end 👍. Miss those Catton days, not sure when Senny will be up and running but I'm keeping the faith. To keep this on thread 😇 what happened to your mega field stove - last I saw it in Eskdalemuir it was pumping some heat out with a tempting stew on top!?