Ferdinand

Put a 15ft monolith outside and call it "Standing Stone" ? I say create something you want and name it after that. As you say, you only get to do this once. F

I think the original post on changes of Ministers is significant in that short tenures prevents strategies being pursued for long enough to get them done, and then it all changes and we go back to the start. If you change them every 12 months there will never be *any* chance of successful long term policy. If you leave them in post then there at least exists the chance that it could happen. One of David Cameron's strengths was that he left people in post to get on with it for longer periods. Compare to Blair (or perhaps Thatcher) who were micromanagers, though they arguably had Ministers who were big enough characters to argue back, or Brown who was a bear with a sore head. We may not agree with the policies, but a modicum of stability is necessary to find out what works and what does not. That we have recently existed in political earthquake-land has not helped, either. Example: Ministers changing jobs How many people have held each post since 1997-2019?

I think a name will emerge as you build. Just keep a notebook or chalkboard and note them down. Build a track and call it either "Field of Sheep" or "Old Lady's House" ! Or more seriously plant an group of interesting trees, or plant hundreds of some unusual flowers in your wildflower meadow area that are rarities and need preserving, and name it after that. Somebody on BH has called theirs "Turner's Oak" IIRC. Look at the list of trees suggested for replacing ashes suffering from dieback which is quite interesting - I think I heard them mention Red Oaks, which are distinctive and grow quickly throughout the UK. Can you grow a Cedar of Lebanon up there - you have the space? You need to think what you want it to look like for your grandchildren, or in 2070. We used to have a 2 acre garden planted by the mid-Victorians, and it was a delight. We used to get daffodils from February to May, and it had the best weeping beech I have ever seen. Let it steep for a couple of years.

A very wise question to ask first, @Gem77.

Looks good.

Have you taken a set of photos from the outside while it is cold to look for warm spots, which may show up some of the ones you cannot find from the inside by looking for "cold"? Ferdinand

The man clearly needs a Dvorak keyboard, then the typos will be even more fun - what my dad used to call a (phonetically) "Vorjack" keyboard after the composer. He never quite got the hang of it, even though he became quite dogmatic about using it and it protected his PC from anybody else most successfully because it completely wrecked normal touch typing. It also wrecked his touch typing on anybody else's PC. Here's one to the Vodka, and the Schnapps, which probably both help us British monoglots. Ferdinand

See if you can get a look under that cover.

The problem is that I can move those stats by a third or more each way just by changing the detail of the measurement, eg even if it is relative to pre or post tax or pre or post benefit income. One of the numerical games played with inequality is that there is a habit of quoting Gini Coeffficient based on figures of raw income not benefit-adjusted income. Oxfam play similar games with their claims about wealth distribution eg ignoring that we all have the asset of a state pension, which really is also "wealth".

Not disagreeing and will comment later, but can you link a source for that stat so I can see what it actually represents - region, before or after the benefit system, household or individual income etc. Cheers F

Sorry to pull this thread out of history, but @PeteTheSwede did ask for thoughts. My thought is why spend 5-10k on a laundry chute when you can just hoick it all over the banisters? I just hoicked the last lot of Christmas bedlinen over the banisters and it is now being washed. (Perhaps to do with delivery direct to the laundry room?)

I have a milder version of the same thing - I think - and wonder if my front door needs tightening.

I agree not "easy" - but we know what to do, as we have done it twice. But they now seem to be on it. Rough Sleepers Initiative from 1990-1999 engaged many agencies, for example, including mental health services. Personally I am particularly keen on things to help reintegrate people who we expect to do and face violence and trauma on our behalf - armed forces and perhaps uniformed services. Certainly ex-army are over-represented amongst homeless people. F

It does effect it, as does eg a bed on the ground vs one on legs. I am planning to take my downstairs carpets *out* soon. ? PS Thermal Mass is what Roman Catholics do near the Equator. Nothing to do with houses.

As a Gen-Xer (by one year ?) I think that will be interesting, as that is the Generations that will really feel the pension pressure in terms of workers per pensioner to pay the State Pension. If the Housing supply problem gets towards being sorted - especially in London - (and it could be sorted with appropriate policies), that could release some pressure. To date the politicians are too timid. To my eye they have to either allow the brownfield parts of the greenbelt to be developed out to the M25, select an area (which means a big low density Council Estate) and develop it like Singapore (I mean 1000-2000 acres and densities of double the Barbican - perfectly normal elsewhere in teh world), or find space for another 5-10 Milton Keynes type garden cities. The Oxford to Cambridge corridor *may* be significant. Ferdinand

Very true. I may comment more when I have seen the whole thing, and comment on whether the stuff they document is actually legal, or how borderline it is. Current experience is that LLs walking the boundaries of legality or tax law are going down in droves. And there are plenty of get rich quick merchants selling get rich quick schemes. "Rent to rent" is one, where you rent a house to a middleman who turns it into a stack 'em and pack 'em HMO to get treble the income, and give you a wreck back later. But Councils do not really enforce against illegal HMOs run by criminal landlords, at least in England. Some of the 250m-400m or so raised from tenants by LL Licensing Fees should go to that. F

Quite revealing as to the depth of research, or lack of it. The first chap (46, 25 year property career) seems quite reputable ... upgrading his houses, trading in property with HAs etc. This statement in the commentary at 07:30 is a Black Lie or a sign of Olympic Quality stupidity. “40% of Council Built Properties are now owned by Private Landlords” Council Homes built are in toto roughly 7 million. Of which 2 million have been sold under Right to Buy. The 40% owned by Private LLs (no idea how many are the people who bought the house) is of the 2 million not the 7 million, and the soft voice commentary implies that there are 3 million of them not 800k. They are stoking up hatred and confusing the debate in that multiple. Suspect they have limited their research to the Google snippet for that question, which for some reason points to a misleading Independent article here, which says things like this in an article about the PRS: "There are now just 2 million council homes left in Britain – down from 6.5 million when Right to Buy was introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980, although a number of factors are behind the fall." whilst forgetting to mention at all that millions have been moved to Registered Social Providers, hugely exaggerating the impact of the PRS. Judging by what I have seen so far, it is a complete cesspit of a programme. F

It may have been an old washer some time ago when I did this scientific study. Like decades. ? I'm going back to talking about socks. Need to find some odd ones for tomorrow. "Ask, seek, sock".

In my limited experience if I feel up my trousers after a bit on the clothes horse the dampness migrates with gravity -- downwards. But I suspect neither of us is going to the guillotine for our views on this existential question. ?

Whilst I agree with your general argument Jeremy, I think you will find cheap homes in ex-industrial areas - but you will not find huge numbers of Empty Homes. The UK's addressing of Empty Homes has been very good in most respects, compared to any other major country in Europe. Currently in England we only have a little over 200k "long term empties" (meaning 6 months or more), which is about 0.7%. It's a bit of a triumph, though orgs talking up housing crises don't usually say so. The numbers - both long and short term, have been reduced by about a third over 10-15 years and kept down. What it means is that we are relatively tight compared to elsewhere. I am not sure how far it can be taken below that. This is a Guardian Graphic from a piece in 2014 about Empties across Europe, using EU stats (explains why Merkel could take a million refugees): And here is a piece from Spring 2019, pointing out that there are 216k empties in the England. Another piece here from Sept. (Obvs being the Guardian one of them is written by a person who's numerical qualification is a Fine Arts Degree ? ). There is a category error over time as the first 700k number is all of them (UK), whilst the 216k is England and Long Term ie empty for 6 months. This was a million or so in 2005. Also Scotland is some way behind England on this issue - now doing it, but is overall not a huge number on the stats as England is 85%+ of the UK in pop. (Certainly in our area of the Midlands the market has hardened quite a bit in the last 12-18 months. Talking to my friendly Estate Agents whilst out for a walking lunch yesterday they are getting closer to asking prices than they were, and asking prices are up by 5-7% in 12-24 months - big change here which has been nearly flat for about 15 years with a couple of blips. I trust these particular EAs more to be candid than typical since I have bought a couple of houses from each of them over the last few years, and they know I can and will check as it is all published.) The fount of stats on this subject is Action on Empty Homes and the ONS Licve Tables, who monitor down to tenure stats for each LA area. Personally I am optimistic on HS2 - I think for this area it will really help as times to London will go under 2 hours from about 3 (that might be door to door numbers), which crosses a threshold and makes it a less-than-a-day trip so eg bosses get a couple of hours at work the same day. We get integrated. One interesting stat is that even the current West Coast Main Line upgrade (the Blair 9bn one) achieved a 20% modal shift from air to rail on the Glasgow route - 500k passengers a year. That is why I think Green policy will make HS2 link to Scotland in time. I see HS2 / HS3 / Electric to South Wales etc as just basic plumbing for a 21C economy. Got quite cross because my newly minted Tory ex-Lab MP seems to think it is either HS2 OR Rural Bus Services. Twat. Ferdinand

I would think that would lengthen the time since the water will move to the slowest drying part, which is the waistband.

When you are doing sealant you must have one of these or similar https://www.toppstiles.co.uk/fixing-finishing/silicone/topps-tiles-sealant-finishing-tools

It would help to see a picture of where you are going to put them, with the area indicated. Ferdinand

There are different categories of homeless. On the one hand there are rough sleepers eg on benches, doorways, subways etc as you highlight. That is relatively easy to address with relatively few resources - eg the Tory Governments from about 1990 onwards ran the programme called the Rough Sleepers Initiative which reduced rough sleeping in London by around 70%, at a cost of around 30m a year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Sleepers_Initiative New Labour repeated the trick across the country in a very few years from 1997 on. IMO the current series of Tory Govts are guilty of unforgiveable neglect of this issue - rough sleeping has gone up again very significantly - yet it is relatively inexpensive and well known how to deal with it. Then there is "sofa surfing" type homelessness - people who cannot afford or cannot find housing. This requires more affordability or housing supply, or denser occupation. Then there is "temporary accommodation" type homelessness - eg people in B&B. This is a matter of people with a right to Social Housing not having supply available. Then there are "Council waiting lists", which is really a measure of people who aspire to less expensive housing rather than homelessness. There are background factors such as average household size have fallen significantly eg couples living apart, and others. And also the one @SteamyTea highlights of accommodation being used as second homes or holiday lets. Will comment on this separately. The are Private Rental Sector issues with the conduct of Councils, but as that is a hobbyhorse for me I will leave it alone here. Ferdinand

Just imagine if I was Jake the Peg and had three different colours. I would have to buy my socks in triplicate like Planning Forms.