oowee

I have Honda auto with stop start. Just replaced the original battery which has done 7 years with a new Varta at £97. Stop start is an excellent feature. The pre engaged starter is designed for the job and is seamless. Only annoys me when it wont switch off as there is too much drain on the battery 😁

I hope to take our boat to the Isles of Scilly in June (weather dependent).

Pick the boat up in Phuket. Hoping its got a decent fridge and plenty of fans 😁

We have rented a sail boat in Thailand for a couple of weeks followed by a weeks diving off this Weekend. Africa shooting for the end of April and spend the summer on our boat on the South Coast.

Did you enter the News of the World darts? We played all the time for local pub team and entered as individuals at 17 🤣.

I am up for that. A bit of new thinking. Here everything is black or white no room for grey. I was just looking at new employment compacts with Ukraine and Denmark to create new employment opportunities in arms manufacturing partnerships. Why can we not come up with anything new here?

This is the wrong way around. The UK cannot support the low paid industrial economy without the higher service sector. Industry manufacturing jobs are head to head with India and China and require us to have low wages and long hours. The well paid jobs are in design, innovation and the knowledge driven economy. We have to be simply a small part of a global economy to be competitive. The only way manufacturing jobs will work is local production or special products or where manufacturing is highly mechanised. UK economic policy has not been in favour of mechanisation. Services is where the UK will and does lead. It can be very highly paid and in the case of the UK pays the vast majority of our bills. It relies upon a supporting service sector which by it's nature will be lower paid. Without service skills we would be in an even worse state than we are now. The NHS is a service industry that the Government try's to keep as low paid hence (in part) the mess its in.

Looks like it will be well worth the effort if you can get it done. Interesting stuff. Sounds like my rubber volvo stern gland is a bit lightweight 😁

I need a couple of tooth implants. Quote in UK was £2600 each. In Turkey / or Europe it was around £1200 each but I need to go at least twice. I have now agreed a price at a training centre in UK for £1600 each. Fingers crossed for end on the month when the drilling starts 😒

Housing crisis is caused because market structure needs price increases to work. Biggest driver is new household formations and older peops living longer.

We may want to limit uncontrolled immigration but we do not have enough workers to sustain the lifestyle that we want. Despite the current level of taxation being the highest ever, there is not enough tax to go around. We are simply living beyond our means. We have used oil, and the sale of assets to subsidise a life style that we have not earn't.

It's such a waste of talent that we need here. Its the same for my daughter (GP in the next month) and her husband ( Research Doctor with NHS). I want them to make a great life but at the same time hope they might stay. The salary offers and working conditions make the UK look like the dark ages.

It highlights the waste of time that is this Tory govt. Fighting Tory battles rather than dealing with the issues. What is the Rwanda count so far, £450m, how many removals? 😂

ICMPD expects people to try to move before anticipated post-election tightening of migration laws A US crackdown on migratory routes could result in a rise in the number of Venezuelans and Colombians using visa-free visitor routes to Spain. New migration laws agreed by the EU late last year would initially be a magnet rather than a deterrent for many who would try to get to Europe before they come into force later this year, the report said. Contrary to the xenophobic message of many anti-immigrant, far-right politicians, Spindelegger said Europe needed migrants if the EU was to maintain a sufficiently robust workforce, with shortages across the bloc. The EU commissioner Ylva Johansson recently cited the need for 1 million more workers in the EU to keep pace with demographic change, saying it was “a challenge to do that in an orderly way”. Spindelegger said the numbers were much higher, with 1 million needed in Germany alone and 500,000 in Austria. If the private sector cannot recruit, it will simply move investments elsewhere, Spindelegger warned. ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved new legislation that will grant tens of thousands of undocumented migrants residence and work permits amid a shortage of unskilled labor. The law drafted by the center-right government links the right to residence with proof of employment.

Or immigration. Lets face it the majority of the UK does not want to do anything about anything that is going to directly affect them. Most are happy to blame the 'Wokes' (whatever they are) the left leaning militants (depends where your centre is) the Tories, or anything else. The NHS, immigration, taxation, co2, housing, transport, trade, all need to be addressed. None of the solutions are popular. The electoral system does not allow for structural change. We just have to endure the decline and hope it's slow enough for us not to notice.

We don't have enough doctors the pay is too low for the skills involved. We can't afford the service because it's an open ended contract. That's not the fault of the profession. It's the fault of directionless govt. Poorly informed electorate. Low productivity, a shortage of tax payers, overburden of geriatrics.

Maybe if UK govt would negotiate with the BMA a deal in the middle is doable. Your right this is Tory politicising and ineptitude. I try not to look to Europe as it just reminds me of what a hole this country has become. Little England has no future. Open your eyes man step of the flat earth and embrace reality. We don't have enough doctors the pay is too low for the skills involved.

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I hear what you are saying but in that case if they cannot strike their pay should be locked to some sort of tracker so that they retain the parity they had in 2010. We can't have it both ways. Take away the right to strike but lock their pay. That said if you have insufficient workers you need some mechanism to attract more and pay seems like a good starter for 10.

Vermin is good enough.

So you want to penalise them for having a caring profession? It's like charging the good samariton with jay walking, for crossing the road 🤣

Your right of course. I only point out the reasons why we have so much traffic. It's of our own making with the govt split down the middle and some of the population baying at their heals it's paralysed. The underlined part is a myth. 3/4 are approved if processed. It will only get worse.

Four Truths on legal routes from Amnesty International; TRUTH 1: The Government allows nobody to make a claim for asylum in the UK unless they are physically present in the UK TRUTH 2: It is impossible to come to the UK for the purpose of seeking asylum in any way permitted by the Government’s immigration rules TRUTH 3: The Government makes almost no safe and legal route available to any refugee other than someone from Ukraine TRUTH 4: Seeking asylum from persecution is lawful – refugees don’t need anyone’s permission to do so There are a very few exceptions where some seek asylum at embassies or in the case of Afghans or the like. No wonder we have the boats. Refugees living in northern France say Brexit has made it easier for them to reach the UK in small boats, as it emerged that record numbers of people crossed the Channel in one day. Outside EU, people can no longer be returned to other European countries under legislation known as Dublin regulation New report 'Sea Change on Border Control' shows that "the primary factor behind small boat crossings is the UK's lacking a returns agreement with the EU. This was a consequence of the UK's Brexit deal"

Then they could work to rule instead. That would cause a headache. Crikey Bring back back imperial rule. To hell with a free state.

🤣 I doubt even America could bribe Putin (the richest man in the world) with cash. Amnesty might be a different matter.