Ferdinand

To reflect on that. Much has been, and is being achieved. The fringe people such as Insulate Britain (on whom I've been forthright before), the E/W Green Party, and Greta, spend their rime shouting that nothing has been achieved unless we XYZ impossibilism this week, such as ripping out all gas boilers by 2025 and so on, have made themselves irrelevant to the practical debate, as well as being entirely fictional. To have a position of "more ! more !! more !!!" with no useful comment is both misleading and stupid. One of the current pernicious ones is IB's claim that nothing has been done about insulation, which is and remains untrue. We'd all like more, but we're starting from here - which is part of the way on then journey. If I'm being persnickety, is not Scotland's electricity now around zero-net carbon? I believe Scot Gov claimed 97% green for last year. Plus it's November in the fair city of Glasgae, so it is probably making a carbon-profit from all the howling gales. As opposed to the Howling Gaels celebrating their large rugby win yesterday. This is a comment from Dave Keating, a writer at the Politico.eu who basically functions as an amateur PR Man for the European Commission, and who spends his time scraping barrels to find anti-UK narratives to put into the ether, or the anti-UK aspects of any story as a mirror of an obsessively pro-EU Commission stance. These days he's trying to explain why Poland must be punished for breaking EU law, when none of the others who broke it (Germany, France etc) were. (If anyone doubts that, go and follow DK's twitter feed for a month.) This one is a fair observation: My view on where the UK needs to be is that we are making very rapid progress, as we all know - due to hit the improved -55% EU target if they've agreed it yet by around 2024 Q1/2, and that we should refocus our overseas aid budget to helping stable developing countries (eg Ghana not Libya) move towards low carbon development by helping in those areas where we have practical expertise, and helping them develop their own green economies to build low-carbon-intensive wealth. Wealth is necessary for fertility to plummet, and self-dependence is necessary for real development. I think the UK is unusual (some Scandis are the same) in not having used aid as a tool for creating dependence. Ferdinand

That's my technique. Take a Green Party person along, and buy the one that causes the loudest shriek

Charring is an interesting idea. I wonder if it would work?

Do we know how many there are where? East Midlands: 5 East of England: 27 London: 18 NE: 3 NW: 8 These are the ones I was able to check. F

Watch out for costs, of course. This can be expensive. So you need to decide where you wish to be on the risk / cost balance for each item.

If you search through the forum several of us have lost relatives to asbestosis. But short, incidental exposure to embedded asbestos is at the low end of the spectrum, and we are vocal about it in high risk situations - such as extended potential exposure to fibres. So low risk on several dimensions of the scale. F

Not a *very* big system. If it is all exported that is a medium sized system. I love that the self-promoting architectural chap is (or was): "Chairman of the Gettorf local association" (https://www.ju-rd-eck.de/personen/nico-rensch-0) which is what HMQ says to overexcited corgis. I think it is the same chap - the ears match exactly. OCICBW. The marketing bollocks quotient appears to be about 8 out of 10: “Wunderhaus is the opportunity to embrace a paradigm shift to energy positive, carbon negative, sustainable contemporary living” Presumably it can be heated with electric panel heaters. Lord, forgive my unforgivable cynicism, but not yet. * * Prayer inspired by St Augustine's view of celibacy.

Also the Times ... older story. When the temperature plummeted to minus 6C in January, Reuben Shaw had a stack of logs ready for the fire in case his decision to rip out his family’s gas boiler and replace it with an electric heat pump left them freezing. He had read warnings that older homes, such as his, would need expensive underfloor heating and extra insulation to stay warm with a heat pump. Having chosen not to heed the warnings, because of the cost and disruption of the additional measures, Shaw, 44, then found the heat pump immediately tested by the coldest January for a decade ... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/home-is-where-the-hydrogen-boiler-or-heat-pump-is-j23r2ps2p

Link?

And *&^%$ postboxes.

On locks, make sure the Eurolocks are anti-snap anti-bump.

Where are you on payments? If you are owed cash a Small Claims action can let you do cute things such as freeze his bank account and have the money paid to you from there, and so on. But you have to get in early.

Perhaps once you have that, check with a local long-established legal firm, or Town Planner (MRTPI), who may with luck have dealt with the question before. You need someone with some specialist legal expertise, and some significant local experience. For me that is either a local solicitor firm large enough to have a property department - perhaps one with 2 or 3 branches, or an experienced (10-20 years+ locally) MRICS (Chartered Surveyor) or MRTPI (Town Planner). The "Local" means there is a non-trivial chance that they may have dealt with the same question before on another of the properties. I would probably suggest a short convo with an MRICS or MRTPI first as you may get an answer casually in 15 minutes. One place to find an MRICS is at a well-established local Estate Agent. You want the chunky middleaged one with the greying stubble and the 3 unwashed cups of coffee dregs.

I like the juxtaposition of the expression and the pole.

I read that as HMP. Hope it does not happen. Mr Buttercup - EVENING - you only have photographically proved the existence of 382 newts. There are 383 on the list. Why? My colleague is over there with the Black Maria... F

Can you add a budget door opening the other way the other side of the wall?

If it needs no more structure, I'd fill it with EPS, hopefully from a single offcut shaved to shape - possibly foamed in to fill the gaps. Or polybeads in a mixture with a bit of PVA, so they stick together and don't fly out again. The important thing is to vanish the cold bridge. Or you could make a secret compartment with a lifting lid.

An important thread. Thank-you. I try to treat it as a hierarchy like the Remove -> Reduce -> Recycle one for greenery. 1 - Design in access so no need for a ladder. eg near a balcony or bridge, or even an internal window or opening opposite the big window. 2 - Make it accessible from the ground for regular tasks eg use an extendy-window-cleaning-pole, if necessary from a 3 - Work platform or scaffold tower. 4 - Ladder with appropriate measures to make use safe. Plus wheezes such as self-cleaning glass. I learnt my lesson about thinking about access early on when dad installed a mezzanine and some high level lights in their bedroom - at opposite ends. The way it ended up, rather than changing the bulbs from the mezzanine, you had to dismantle the bed and put a ladder inside the bed frame to access them. Again thanks for posting the account. Ferdinand

I do 2 models: Fully Furnished for students. Unfurnished for normal family lets.

Interesting for me: - That basements are still thought of as bomb shelters. (FInland, like Switzerland, still has conscription aiui, and never really took the 1990s peace dividend.) - The arrangement of the double windows.

There's always low level influencing and sometimes corruption (eg developer does block driveway for a Councillor) going on. If you talk in a non-public setting to a big group of Councillors or Officers off the record, some will usually admit to knowledge of such. The type of corruption we have allegedly (still subjudice I think) seen in Liverpool recently, which is perhaps more like what happens in US cities more, does not imo happen very often here. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/liverpool-city-council-corruption-caller-report-joe-anderson-b1823446.html https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/976197/Liverpool_Best_Value_inspection_report.pdf Separate to that, there is influencing at the devolved level (Scotland, Wales etc) or National level. I'm not sure how much of that is true, and how much is mudslinging. I think some level of such is inevitable and as a country I think we do reasonably well by international standards. Others may differ.

It takes the local politics out of it, since the Planning Committee cannot be engaged. Not convinces on the Green claim on the presumption in favour; there are more conditions attached than that.

Don't forget your mask. On your aunt's mugging - that's very sad, as it shows the long term effects of a single traumatic event on one person's life.

Plenty of people here will give you free rubble.

What is the RH level? I might be inclined to close it long enough to dehumidify with one on a long cable, if you can.