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"Apparent fact" is a total oxymoron... When you talk about "living there illegally" I suspect you are envisioning landlords subletting their own flats for profit while they roll around in their piles of money, right? Any overcrowding in flats like this is almost always caused by a combination of families that were too large for the units being placed there in the first place, or growing after moving in-After all, if you move into a two bedroom flat with a family that fills that to the on-paper capacity-say, two kids, two adults-and you then have another child or two, the council doesn't automatically move you to somewhere bigger. Many larger and extended families lived in this building and all of the others of its ilk legally, waiting for years to get rehoused into more appropriate accommodation. Even in the case of bottom end social housing where say, people might have had other friends or family living there with them who were not on the paperwork, this is not profiteering and scheming-it's poverty. If there are any flats in that building in which what you claim is happening was happening-sub-letting for profit-how does this fall on the shoulders of those tenants, who were almost by design the most vulnerable, poor and disenfranchised residents of them all? Landlord is a nasty, despicable selfish individual, how are people supporting them!? People are supporting the TENANTS. How they got to be tenants is of literally zero interest to me. And there is also the possibility that when the fire service et. al. are saying they might not be able to identify all of the dead, what they mean is that some of the remains will be so badly disfigured that there will be no means of identification available, and so they may never be able to match a body to a specific name. That's how I read it... More than "one particular person" understands why people would riot. When you get to the end of the line in terms of getting your basic needs met and your voice listened to, I mean the real end-people have died as a result of tenants not being respected or listened to-where do you go? How do you think people will to be heard about protecting themselves and their families when no one will listen? People have died now, and the government has a pretty short window of opportunity that they don't seem to be trying too hard to get through, in which to prove that they are listening, otherwise why wouldn't people riot? I would. If your "riot" is my "fighting for my (literal) life." We've got plenty of facts already. The fact is that a tower block's worth of people are now homeless due to a catalogue of failings in a council-owned building. The fact is that as of tonight, many are still sleeping in a sports centre in a rich borough full of empty properties owned by billionaires. The fact is that people were told that the building would restrict any fire to it's originating flat, and died due to that fallacy. The fact is that people were told to stay in their flats in case of fire, and died following that advice. The fact is that there is no coordination or plan in place to assist these people at present, nobody is listening to them about their basic needs and rights. The fact is that Theresa May has f***ed her response up to this and won't face the people she serves. The fact is that Grenfell residents raised safety concerns for years and were ignored. The fact is that people died in a building that, whatever the eventual nitty gritty of the investigation returns, was a death trap. The fact is that an unknown number of poor and disenfranchised people died this week, in a way that was horrendous and preventable, and that none of the people in power acted to prevent this. Is there anyone else there who does not understand the instinct to riot? Riots aren't by design about being an asshole and breaking other people's things for shits and giggles. Riots are about doing the last thing in your power when everything else is taken away from you, to defend your basic human rights-to defend your right to live. Grenfell residents and supporters don't want to ruin your nice things. They want to be heard, and respected, and that's not happening right now. Simple.

Yesterday, a few of those "incompetent" police officers bravely ran TOWARDS three armed criminals wearing what looked like suicide vests and efficiently dealt with their mental health issues.

please pin point exactly where Labour has said it will open boarders? its this kind of rabid rhetoric that does you or the Tories little favor. You cite personal experience as absolute fact (I'm alright jack..) and still haven't answered the question about mental health. My personal experience of the NHS is great, its great because it relies on the good will of the people that went into the job to make a difference. if they stopped caring, you'd know about it. My Mother and Father in law are both NHS Staff nurses, one runs the spinal ward at Salisbury hospital and one works in palliative care in Dorset. They work so hard, have few breaks and can never take all of their leave. They have given their life to the NHS and still have to pay to park their car when they are saving lives. They haven't had a decent pay rise in years. My wife is a Mental Health Social worker, she works between secure hospitals and community care. she sees clients who are so close to killing themselves or in some cases do because the MH services wont assess unless people are in crises, the services is on its knees. So, congratulations on your wonderful NHS experience, its because of the sweat and tears of others that you can so arrogantly profess how well its doing.

A short blog that myself and a friend wrote after that horrendous attack on the young lad in Croydon of late. We were moved beyond compare by the response to our efforts and wanted to spread the word about the massive impact of small acts of kindness. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bridey-watson/small-acts-of-kindness_b_16380268.html

We need to stop our successive governments following policies of intervention in other countries that create a breeding ground for more and more young people in this country to become radicalised. Far from removing the terrorist threat successive governments have done exactly what is required to create a far bigger one.

Came across this on the internet, interesting views I hope you don't mind me sharing, personally of course I will be voting liberal because of brexit. here’s what I’m really struggling to understand. All I’ve ever heard from people, for years, is: “bloody bankers and their bonuses” “bloody rich and their offshore tax havens “ “bloody politicians with their lying and second homes” “bloody corporations paying less tax than me” “bloody Establishment, they’re all in it together” “it’ll never change, there’s no point in voting” And quite rightly so, I said all the same things. But then someone comes along that’s different. He upsets the bankers and the rich. The Tory politicians hate him along with most of the labour politicians. The corporations throw more money at the politicians to keep him quiet. And the Establishment is visibly shaken. I’ve never seen the Establishment so genuinely scared of a single person. So the media arm of the establishment gets involved. Theresa phones Rupert asking what he can do, and he tells her to keep her mouth shut, don’t do the live debate, he’ll sort this out. So the media goes into overdrive with: “she’s strong and stable” “he’s a clown” “he’s not a leader” “look he can’t even control his own party” “he’ll ruin the economy” “how’s he gonna pay for it all?!” “he’s a terrorist sympathiser, burn him, burn the terrorist sympathiser” And what do we? We’ve waited forever for an honest politician to come along but instead of getting behind him we bow to the establishment like good little workers. They whistle and we do a little dance for them. We run around like hypnotised robots repeating headlines we’ve read, all nodding and agreeing. Feeling really proud of ourselves because we think we’ve came up with our very own first political opinion. But we haven’t, we haven’t come up with anything. This is how you tell. No matter where someone lives in the country, they’re repeating the same headlines, word for word. From Cornwall to Newcastle people are saying: “he’s a clown” “he’s a threat to the country” “she’s strong and stable” “he’ll take us back to the 70s” And there’s nothing else, there’s no further opinion. There’s no evidence apart from one radio 5 interview that isn’t even concrete evidence, he actually condemns the violence of both sides in the interview. There’s no data or studies or official reports to back anything up. Try and think really hard why you think he’s a clown, other than the fact he looks like a geography teacher (no offence geography teachers) because he hasn’t done anything clownish from what I’ve seen. And you’re not on this planet if you think the establishment and the media aren’t all in it together. You think Richard Branson, who’s quietly winning NHS contracts, wants Corbyn in? You think Rupert Murdoch, who’s currently trying to widen his media monopoly by buying sky outright, wants Jeremy in? You think the Barclay brothers, with their offshore residencies, want him in? You think Philip Green, who stole all the pensions from BHS workers and claims his wife owns Top Shop because she lives in Monaco, wants Corbyn in? You think the politicians, both Labour and Tory, with their second homes and alcohol paid for by us, want him in? You think Starbucks, paying near zero tax, wants him in? You think bankers, with their multi million pound bonuses, want him in? And do you think they don’t have contact with May? Or with the media? You honestly think that these millionaires and billionaires are the sort of people that go “ah well, easy come easy go, it was nice while it lasted”?? I wouldn’t be if my personal fortune was at risk, I’d be straight on the phone to Theresa May or Rupert Murdoch demanding this gets sorted immediately. Because here’s a man, a politician that doesn’t lie and can’t lie. He could have said whatever would get him votes anytime he wanted but he hasn’t. He lives in a normal house like us and uses the bus just like us. He’s fought for justice and peace for nearly 40 years. He has no career ambitions. And his seat is untouchable. That’s one of the greatest testimonies. No one comes close to removing him from his constituency, election after election. His Manifesto is fully costed. It all adds up, yes there’s some borrowing but that’s just to renationalise the railway, you know we already subsidise them and they make profit yeah? One more time… WE subsidise the railway companies and they walk away with a profit, just try and grasp the level of piss taking going on there. Unlike the Tory manifesto with a £9 billion hole, their figures don’t even add up. And it benefits all of us, young, old, working, disabled, everyone. The only people it hurts are the establishment, the rich, the bankers, the top 5% highest earners. Good, screw them, it’s long overdue. #VoteLabour #ForTheManyNotTheFew !

Yes I am new to all this and I will make mistakes and learn from them but to clarify, we are having a loss of oil as well as diesel, which is being looked at and yes I mistook a fuel filter for an oil filter but at the same time I still appreciate the boat I have and will learn, I chose Kathleen after a lot of investigation of my options, I discounted many other boats and outboards/petrol, I read up on "plastic" boats from the 60's onwards, did you know that a so called plastic boat from the 60's to the 80's have very little risk of osmotic blistering due to the density and way they made them back then. I also read up a lot on engines, I knew that BMC like many other have quirks and issues but I also now know in real time what some of those issues are. One of the things we did not point out is we noticed after leaving dock that none of our dials were working, for the first mile we had no dials at all (we moored up as soon as we got onto the TMC feeling it was safer than stopping on the Trent, we were even concerned that when we stopped the engine it would not start again. It was something we did not know thats all, seems you turn the key one way to preheat and start the engine then twist it the other way and all the dials kick in, Voltage showed fine, fuel showed fine, temp high and oil pressure was waving around the 0-5 mark now we assumed wrongly that it was not working (we will not make that mistake again) its all a learning experience, a first boat experience, but I know the boat is solid because we kinda had a few moments it seemed like we were at the funfair dodgem car ride and did I mention I love BMC. Oh and be as blunt as you want but do not try to spin a line of hearsay and urban sludge when you talk about plastic boats and expect me not to point out your own issues. Most of the people on this forum have been amazing and I never asked to be wrapped in cotton wool, happy to own my own mistakes and learn from them.

How many of the people who continue to pander to your continual needy demands for people to critique these multitude of boats that you are never going to buy have you just written off as "scroungers?" Frankly I am amazed anyone is still wasting their time, I can't think of anyone else in recent history who has sucked so much out of other forum members over such a short space of time and yet provided nothing of value themselves. I do hope that should you ever actually be in the position to buy a boat, you haven't used up all of your goodwill in terms of people's time and energy spent answering your questions while you argue back and sling mud. You are once again going off half-cocked with little to no theoretical knowledge and none practical of a framework and lifestyle that you are currently window-shopping as an armchair tourist in, in flagrant disregard of the informed opinions of people who don't just talk the talk, but live it. Don't assume that just because someone lives on a boat that has a non-residential mooring that they do not pay council tax at all, nor that a mooring that is lived aboard but is non-residential is against any form of regulations (council or CRT) by default. Even if you DO have ties of any form (school, jobs, whatever) you totally CAN make a CC declaration and are not forced to have a mooring-CRT can't and won't stop you, assuming that you can and do follow the usual regulations. I would suggest they have worded their statement there badly, but a person/boat of people cannot be refused a CC licence for reasons such as having kids or jobs, only for non compliance, howsoever caused. You continue to talk flaming piles of shite about things of which you know nothing. Now with added name-calling!

And good manners would require those who think as you do, to skip reading her posts and just keep quiet. But some found it necessary to berate Tree publicly, and as a result she made the not unreasonable decision to stop posting. And some of us think the forum is the poorer for that.

All wrong. Prince Edward is the second son born to Queen Elizabeth II. Charles and Anne were born to Princess Elizabeth.

just tell them its bloody cold in winter, you dont know how the bog works when its full, and have a part cooked chicken on the oven and the gas has gone on a Sunday at 4.30 and you cant get another until Tuesday as all the boatyards are shut until then. Add on that you have to keep moving on a continuous journey every 14 days and dont fancy the bit where you have to go up to Scotland via the sea to do the authorised route. hope this helps us all..

Lets sum up the reshuffle A Justice Secretary opposed to human rights. A Chancellor that switches homes with his wife to save paying thousands to...the exchequer. A Foreign Secretary that thinks it's OK to call foreigners "picaninies". A Home Secretary that thinks more Police cuts are the way forward. An Environment Secretary that voted against climate change measures 12 TIMES. A Health Secretary that wants to privatise your NHS. And this is all lead by a Prime Minister that sells weapons to Saudi Arabia so they can kill innocent Yemeni children

As we are dragging stuff off facebook heres a view from 'a young person' It frustrates me to see so many comments surrounding the election that say "the young people only voted for Labour because they believed that Jeremy Corbyn would abolish university tuition fees." I DID NOT VOTE FOR LABOUR BECAUSE I WANT TO GO TO UNIVERSITY FOR FREE. I voted for Labour to protect the elderly from further cuts to their social care. I voted for Labour so that young children could still have free school meals. I voted for Labour because I value the NHS and those that work in it. I voted for Labour because it is WRONG that nurses have had to turn to food banks for support when they give so much to this country. I voted for Labour to reduce homelessness. I voted for Labour in the hope that it will rebuild the police force that has been destroyed. I voted for Labour to ensure that ALL children, no matter their background and family income, can have the education that they deserve from teachers that are paid fairly in schools that receive enough money to teach the future generations of this country. There are so many reasons that I voted for Labour, and I believe it to be the party that would've changed this country for the better. I realise that many of you will not agree with the points I've made, and that's fine! I understand that the point is we all get the choice to vote for who we would like. But I just wanted to make it absolutely clear that I, like many other young people, did not vote Labour for the personal gain of free university tuition or because I "expect everything for nothing." I voted for Labour for the many, not the few and most definitely not just for myself.

I have just read a comment on a friends Facebook page that I agree with so much that I just had to copy & paste it hereunder:- An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Corbyn's vision of socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Corbyn's ideological plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for £ 's )something closer to home and more readily understood by all). After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that. There are five morals to this story: 1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it! 5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation. The last one to leave turn the lights out.

I am enjoying the discomfort of tory voters as they try on their bowler hats and sashes. That their leader's campaign was fought in large by painting Corbyn as a terrorist-lover, and she so quick to unite with religious fundamentalist knee cappers herself must be a bit nauseating. I know it nauseates most sane people - maybe for the diehard tory it is just a small extension of their underlying beliefs? All this 'well we won' stuff really misses the point - it was May called this to 'stamp out the saboteurs' and secure a dominant majority mandate for her brexit show. She squandered her majority, for cynical political gain, and with it goes the legitimacy of the whole 'I represent the will of the people' nonsense - and the integrity of the tories is shown in plain sight. A DUP - driven government has no legitimacy, and cannot lead. Another election is coming, with a disgraced tory party having exposed its lack of integrity in the most humiliating way. The momentum's now with the other side. Meanwhile, Brexit, which was supposed to be the issue, was hardly mentioned in her campaign of Corbyn-hate - and negotiations are inconceivable under the circumstances. Far from a strong hand the UK isn't even able to get to the table. The harm Cameron and May have done to the UK and its people in pursuit of their own political ambitions will be remembered for decades. We are all going to be hurt - but remember who pulled the triggers.

To change tack a little. I am absolutely fed up with people on the winning side in elections and referenda claiming they got a majority. I can not remember the last time this was true. They may have got a majority of those who voted but they have developed a system where large numbers of potential voters saw no benefit in voting and in the case of safe seats absolutely no point in wasting ones time. Until the system ensures EVERYONE’S vote cants for something, even if it just means that you can vote against a candidate so your vote cancels one for them we will continue to get elections a referenda won by a minority vote. This can not be good for democracy and neither can MPs who also have jobs in the City and Corporate Governance (like my own MP plus 8 other jobs MP). Oh, and before the usual suspects try the "if you did not vote don't moan" line we broke our holiday and rove about 80 miles each way from the boat just to vote although we absolutely knew it would not make a blind bit of difference.

And the blame for that should surely rest firmly on Theresa May, and nobody else. She had the arrogance to assume she could call the election and get a landslide. She has personally presided over probably the most shambolic campaign a party has fought in living memory. I very much doubt Corbyn wanted this election when it was called. The polls then indicated he had not a hope of coming close. Yet now far from a mandate, the Tories are left short of a majority. That has at least as much to do with Mrs May, as it does to do with Mr Corbyn. It is a right bloody mess, but how can you blame anybody except the person who was so cock sure they would win, then seemed to do everything possible to try to lose.

Ever wondered why aliens never really bother us?

Ok I visited Purple8's boat for a quick look earlier. As often happens, all the faults vanished when the boat realised I was there for a look. Cute little three cylinder engine which started and ran perfectly. No smoke or any misbehaving. Mr Purple8 had tried loosening the injector nuts as Tony suggested but it turns out was loosening the wrong nuts. Next time the problem appears he will do it again. I feel it will turn out to be a sticking injector but we'll see. The starter motor did the 'clunk' once, but for ever after operated perfectly. Starter battery resting voltage 13.4v so no problems charging it. Slight scream from an alternator belt. Probably the polyvee driving the domestic alt. I could turn the alternator pulley while the belt slipped (engine off). The starter motor is the type with a solenoid piggy-backed onto it. All the cabling looked stout and sound so I suspect the contacts inside the solenoid are failing. Paint chipped off the side of the soleniod exactly where I suggested giving it a whack next time it plays up, so I suspect a long term prob the previous owner figured out could be fixed by whacking it too. Exhaust is wet by the way. That's about it really!

Does this help, Tim? the Friday before the BCN Challenge, we were in New Street in Brum, going to Tesco. Following the Manchester bomb there were armed police wandering about with automatic weapons, which is something I haven't seen since Belfast. Plenty around the NIA too So, what did this mean for the folk of Birmingham? Frankly, not a lot. Walking up to Broad Street there were the usual groups of young people wearing not enough clothes having a great time. There were rainbow flags about the place as this was the day before the Gay Pride parade. The place was heaving, as usual Around Gas Street there were people on boats chatting, sharing drinks and doing what they enjoy i am old enough to remember that further down New Street was The Talk of the Town, destroyed by a terrorist bomb in the 1970s. That's the same New Street full of happy people on that Friday night. Terrorism doesn't work. What it does do is show up the best of the human spirit, like the taxi drivers in Manchester, the people offering their homes to strangers, the homeless man at the Arena holding a woman in his arms as she passed away. People are bigger than terror Richard

Right, I see that you are very fast to read your own views into other's posts, especially if you think that you can disagree with them and call others names and attribute racism to them without evidence. I only pointed out what made me uneasy in recent days and was carefull not to endorse any conclusions. 1. In previous attacks I did not see any non-Muslims given a public airing to any views that suggested they no longer felt safe. 2. I believe and hope that is what happened but it does not in any way prevent her visible actions being portrayed in a certain way, in fact (to use your own phrase) in certain portion of society it encourages it and that only stokes up more trouble. 3. I know but that in no way invalidates any claim that the particular Mosque in question had openly promoted anti-western Jihadi views. It should be self evident that this will tend to make the Mosque a target for attack. You can try to rewrite history as much as you like but it can not alter historical facts - however much you might like it to be otherwise. I fear it is people with apparent views like your own that has brought us to this state. There are vast numbers of multi-genrational UK citizens who feel their views have been ignored over very many years and the life they were born into has been changed irrevocably. You can see with Ukip what happens if you keep on ignoring vast numbers of of ordinary people and calling them racists when all they want is their traditional way of life to be valued and upheld. The trouble is that when politicians of all major parties, the media, and this internet police conspire to ignore them they will become more and more extreme. That is probably what cause this outrage. I suspect the driver suddenly had had enough and snapped, there may well be a mental problem in there as well. I am not excusing it but I am trying to understand it minus the rosy glasses some seem to look through. Yesterday afternoon I was in a GU canal side country pub with a few other drinkers, most seemed to be locals. The conversation I heard made it perfectly clear that in that place any Muslim would be viewed with suspicion and there seemed to be a feeling that Muslims were in some way getting favourable treatment from "them". For "them" read politicians, media, and so on. I do not agree but unless this is dealt with in an effective way Mr Powell (who was also quoted several times in the pub) will be proved even more correct than he has seen so far. I just hope those in the pub get proved wrong but racist name calling will do nothing but to harden their views.

“ I expect every single white, clean-shaven individual to come out and condemn the abhorrent Finsbury Park attack. I expect every white van driver to come out and unequivocally state that the attack is not in their name. I expect the family of the terrorist to tell the public they had no idea their son was a murderous terrorist. I expect the community he grew up in to be questioned why they did not report him to authorities earlier for his potential terrorist tendencies. I expect his friends to come out and say in media interviews that he was a "nice" guy who kept to himself. I expect the Pubs he frequented to be investigated for potentially radicalising him through the people he met there and for arrests to be made nationally of white males who have posted their intentions to "kill all Muslims" online. I expect Katie Hopkins, Tommy Robinson and their ilk to be arrested for inciting hatred and for radicalising this terrorist with their extremist preaching. I expect every single white, clean-shaven male to stand outside mosques and hand out free hugs and roses to show the Muslim community they are peace-loving and removed from terrorism. I expect white males to organise marches against white terrorism and to hold placards that state "not in my name" so that media organisations like the Independent can post it with the caption "Awesome". I expect Theresa May to organise an emergency cabinet meeting and to tell all white clean-shaven males that "enough is enough". I expect police security outside all Mosques and Islamic establishments with public sentiments calling for Muslims to have access to guns because "this would never have happened" if they did to be to be hailed. I expect a minute of silence for the victims. I expect...... If this doesn't make you understand the type of anti-Muslim reactionary rhetoric enforced every single time a terror attack is reported then you are part of the problem.”

We need address the reasons why the Finsbury Park terrorist was radicalised.

1. Which indicates that the people want another party slightly left of centre or an existing party to alter its position. However I can't see the most likely one being trusted. 2. And make sure all employer of more than a couple of people pay a training levy unless they carry out high quality training of their own staff. Unfortunately it seem to me far too many UK employers have bee far too ready to poach staff trained by others and thereby reduce their own costs and maximise short term profits . You can see the same thing with the increasing number of employers paying the minimum (and lower) wage so they can undercut more socially responsible employers. I think most would go for investment and growth IF it was seen to work. However over recent years it plainly has not. I have no idea how many billions has been invested by Quantitative easing but growth has been stubbornly low and an ever larger section of society have been give lower and lower living standards.

The Nasty Party has lost its majority and Jeremy Corbyn has reversed the fortunes of the Labour Party whilst steering it back to its founding principles. I would definitely describe that as a victory for the country.

Yes you have to admire their consistency. They even cull their own weak and vulnerable.

Like most of the care sector, it's because we bloody care! I have only really every worked for voluntary organisations not withstanding the (very) odd jobs I've had here and there. My last job which I gave up to be a full time dad I was on circa 40K, bloody good money for the sector and did us well. A private company called me up and offered me 80k to do the same job for them. I asked them if they were a registered child care provider, they said yes. I asked them if they had recently floated on the stock market, they said yes. I called them greedy scum, hung up and have never regretted doing so. During my current sabbatical, my wife is working as a mental health social worker on circa 20k. I've done loads of pro bono consultancy. Bottom line is we give a shit. Sometimes we earn money in access, sometimes we dont. But what we do is follow our vocation as best we can. If you would like to see a return to nurse and Dr bursary Peter, vote Labour, because the selfservative will never do it! Edited to add that we are very lucky in that we have been able to live a very cheap way of life within our means

Bearing in mind the UK has been the subject of 'terror' attacks for around 150 years, you'll find people always blame the technology, not the people. The internet, text messaging, the telephone and the penny post have all been blamed in the past Richard

Progressive is about moving away from a capitalistic mood of greed and self serving towards a society where everyone is as important as everyone else. Just like the right tried to rebrand naziism as Alt right it is laughable to try and brand old fashioned greed and self interest as progressive, its about returning to feudalism and only the rich actually counting when it comes to politics. Theres no plan for social riches as you call them, only properly funded public services, Health, education, security and yes the top 5% can easily fund those policies, simply getting corporations to pay the tax they actually owe would bring in about 3/4 of whats needed. As for being weighed down under a burden of higher taxes, corporation tax will be at the same level as 2010 and still lower than most other of our competitors, indeed nearly half of that in the US the so called leader of the free world. It always makes me smile when a conservative tries to claim they care about future generations, is that the future generation who are being condemned to class sizes above 30 pupils? The future generations where the schools are appealing for equipment and books to be donated due to tory cuts? Is it the future generation of nurses who will have NO bursaries to learn their trade because of tory cuts? Or is it just the future generation of kids who will have to pay to see a dr and risk bankrupting themselves and their families with treatment costs should they be stupid enough to get ill? Im thinking the only real future generation tories care about is the children of the rich who might lose a smaller percentage of their total income under Labour plans than the poorer taxpayers will under tory plans. well done, the rest of us lost out on both and will do the same with a tory victory.

This is why I am voting Corbyn: As Tory MP Craig Mackinlay is charged with election fraud, Corbyn was asked for a statement, his response.. "Nobody should be commenting on the details of an ongoing case. The police must be allowed to act independently to investigate on the basis of any evidence they’ve got, and the Crown Prosecution Service must be allowed to make its decision on whether to proceed on a case. It is a very bad road when democratically elected politicians start offering a running commentary on independent judicial processes. We have to have total separation of political and judicial powers in this country. "All politicians need to be extremely careful – politicians are elected to parliament to be held to account by the public." This is what politics has needed for years!

If we are going for anecdotes I can give you loads of examples of just how the NHS isn't working. Do you know anyone suffering from mental illness? If they are getting any realistic form of treatment they are the exception. All we now have is a total lack of treatment facilities and a revolving door. Those picked up by the Police suffering from mental illness are taken to a 'treatment' centre, assessed that there is nothing wrong with them and kicked out to be picked up again later by the Police. May has said that she will amend the 1983 Mental Health Act because too many mentally ill people have been dying in Police Custody, well from a former life I would say that the Police would be more than happy if the 1983 MHA was totally repealed removing any power for the Police to detain these people. This dire state can be traced back as far Thatcher's '(Don't) Care in the Community' project. She sold off the various mental health establishments to rich property speculators and dumped the residents onto the streets, where they have pretty much remained ever since. Very little money goes into Mental Health (presumably because the politicians believe that they don't vote so they don't really care). Whenever someone is killed by a paranoid person we are told that 'lessons will be learned to make sure that it doesn't happen again' and nothing whatsoever is done. The politicians (of all parties) come out with this 'parity of esteem' b*ll*x when those of us who have dealings with the system know that they are lying and there will never be a day when a cancer sufferer and a paranoid schizophrenic will have equal treatment. That is just one side of the NHS. My experience of the other side (A & E) was that back in the early 1990's when we were sent to hospital with an arrested person that was it for the entire shift (want to know why you could never see a policeman? because they were all at the hospital guarding detainees). In the early 2000's the situation improved such that we could potentially be in and out of A & E with them in less than an hour, towards my retirement back in 2013 we were back to spending most of the shift at the hospital, a 6 hour wait was becoming the norm and this was usually in the early hours of the morning (1am to 5am). Speaking with former colleagues it is even worse now (I didn't think that were possible). The NHS is already almost the cheapest Health service in Europe so why do we need to keep on cutting it? to force it into failure so that private health companies and private health insurance companies can cream off comfortable profits from the comparatively healthy population (the sick wont get cover).

I don't usually comment on products or our customer's boats, but as this is the first I've heard of it..... I'm not sure how the "only used half the amount expected" claim arises. We were supplied with a 25ltr container by you and the owner of the other boat after you had both specifically requested that we used the product on your boats - to which I (reluctantly, I admit) agreed on the basis that if you supplied it I would put it on according to the manufacturer's instructions but at your risk. I commented at the time that it was a relatively unknown product, and new to us so I could not in any way make any promises as to its performance or suitability. Prior to application I spoke with the supplier about application and queried the quantity as on average I'd expect to use over 25ltrs of Intertuf on two 60 footers. As per their advertising I was told a little went a long way and they were very specific that we should apply thin coats otherwise it doesn't cure properly; a minimum of two and preferably three, applied by paint pad or roller. The stuff dries very quickly (a major selling point on the supplier's website as I recall) but it was explained to me that if it is put on too thickly it skins over and doesn't cure properly. Fair enough, and we were very careful to follow that advice (including making sure there was no puddling or pooling against strakes or the wear edge, and both boats boats were given ample time (I'm talking days) to dry after three coats had been applied. If I remember correctly the owner of Chyandour was a little unhappy because we were "late" finishing the job as I wouldn't put it back in the water on the day we had hoped for because the temperature had been low over one of the drying days. The first boat we painted was quite pitted (commensurate with its age) and we used just over half the supplied container of paint, so I was concerned at that point that there may not be enough left to do your boat. However, the hullsides of Grace are in excellent condition and very smooth (the Intertuf had done its job well) so it is fair to say that Grace used less than we expected but for that reason alone and it certainly has an adequate film thickness according to the instructions and advice given to us at the time. The stuff is about as runny as water but actually ridiculously easy to put on with a paint pad. I need to talk to a colleague but I think we put an extra coat around the water line on boat boats. Any hard/brittle coating such as Keelblack will quickly be ground off a rubbing strake whereas a soft material like Intertuf will just scuff. This "feature" of Keelblack also concerns me in terms of application over old hull paint (despite what the manufacturer's say) - if the outer skin is rock hard, but the paint behind it is soft (i.e. bitumen) to my mind it's bound to fail when bumped. Think eggshell on a boiled egg..... It's interesting that, presumably without knowing the condition of your hull, the supplier saw fit to suggest we were to blame by not using enough paint. Do you know if he took any thickness measurements? I'd be interested to know when he visited you as I'm unaware of any contact from them since we painted your boats. Is one side still shinier than the other? When we painted yours the weather had gone suddenly from cool to very sunny/warm and the side more in the sun (port side) had dried shiny whereas the north facing side was matt as per Chyandour. I rang the supplier again at that point and queried this and was told they had no idea why it happened, but it was a known cosmetic issue and didn't affect the performance of the product.

I have to say that you and I arrived on the scene in this forum at about the same time...and whilst I would normally bite my tongue and reign my neck in, I am flabbergasted by this and many other responses!...this one inparticular is unfair & totally incomprehensible....a car hitting another car head on at 30mph with no seat belt compared to not wearing a life jacket!?....as a strong swimmer I am not being slammed into the water at a combined speed of 60mph and with an over sized knife style steering wheel in my midriff!.....if you fall off a ladder onto a boat because it catches then I look forward to seeing your belated inflation device! You really need to tape your fingers together and heed the advice of this forum, I came here as a student, you seem to think that as you taught PE on a sailing yacht that you need to answer every answered question on Sporting Fitness, Geography and German with a 'Yes but I think!!....' - if you don't value these gracious people's advice due to your undoubtedly experience in other waters, don't ask, go read a book - if you truly want to learn then listen, listen, listen, and then compare advice with a comparable effort in looking into what your expectations were! PLEASE!!!!!....show some respect, I value people's opinions, it is their experience and they gave their advice willingly, you don't HAVE TO take it, but you SHOULD respect them as people, as boaters and most importantly as unpaid, voluntary posters trying to HELP YOU!!....don't ruin it for the rest of us! ...you're not a bad person but I do feel you have got into a me v them scenario, and you are the one stoking the flames at the moment.....I said it before, take a break, think about it and then stay-on-topic!

Putting cyclists on the towpath because it's safer than being on the road is not a solution to that issue. They then become a problem for all other towpath users. You do not resolve one problem by allowing three others to replace the one. First deal with the original issue i.e. how and why cyclists feel the roads are dangerous for them. You don't resolve an issue by ignoring what is behind it and then creating more problems in exchange.

The man came on here for help and support to deal with mistakes of his own and others resulting in the prospect of enormous bills. He has got the clarification, admitted some of his own shortcomings, and is still in need of tea & sympathy. There is no need to harry the guy further. imho.

The difference between you and me I suppose is that I do not trust our government to act in our interest unless absolutely forced to do so, which is what the EU has been doing over the past 40 years. Without the EU directives you'd still be swimming in raw sh*t when you go to swim in the sea. The EU directives and Blue Flag put paid to that. You can see how little interest the UK government have in our well-being (as opposed to the well-being of the companies that donate money to them) in the fact that they have so fare been repeatedly prosecuted for failing to meet basic air quality standards, once again these came from the EU because the UK government, if left to their own devices, can't be *rsed about it. Once we are out of the EU they wont even have to bother about it at all, just change the law and hey presto no need to worry about annoying pressure groups like Client Earth keep taking them to court and we can have the 'freedom' and 'sovereignty' to suck up all these diesel fumes that the Government have no real interest in doing anything about, let's cut the red tape is their motto, whether or not that 'red tape' is actually keeping us safe and healthy. As a final point of my lack of trust in our government and how they will suck up to foreign powers is the inquiry commissioned by Cameron whilst he was still in office into who are the international sponsors of terrorism. It now appears that the report will, in all probability, never be published due to 'sensitive' information that it contains. The 'sensitive' information it contains is the fact that one of our principal export markets, Saudi Arabia, is the world's largest sponsor of terrorism. You trust our government to act with honour? you are in the minority, us realists know that they don't.

Lots of people are talking about what they would want and expect if they lived in a tower block of that type in terms of sprinklers, guards, more stairs, higher standards, more vigilant inspections, better this and that. I'd want all that too. But the thing is, you're living in a council or housing association death trap of that type because you're poor enough that you had to take what you were offered. No one wants to live somewhere unsafe, but not everyone has the choice, or the power to make demands that get met. Even when people die for it. Poor people in tower blocks and substandard housing have been shouting for years about safety issues and dangerous and unhealthy accommodation, and not been heard. Those of us that are so fantastically lucky that we have a choice about where we live, and the power and money to make our own accommodation safe, need to do more for others who are not as privileged. More voices, more concern, more regard, more power.

Sounds pretty revolutionary to me.

hahaha that is the farthest leap yet from Brexiteers Ive heard, now if Brexit fails its the fault of remainers who said it would be a fail in the first place for saying it would fail.....yeah, righto. If Brexit fails it will be because it was a stupid idea propagated by weak minded people in politics for personal gain and sold to the general public as taking back something we never lost. Note Farage is still claiming his EU salary, will still get his fat EU pension regardless of the kind of Brexit or aftermath we get. He is laughing at us all as he prepares for his future life in the EU and Germany ladies and gentlemen. Woohoo. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/29/nigel-farage-vows-leave-uk-brexit-disaster/

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with tertiary education ... nothing in fact wrong with any level of education ... what I object to is the expectation that 50% of our youth need it. It has led to a devaluation of degrees and at the same time it devalues people who don't have one.

How about teaching in vocational education since 1977 until I retired? Teaching is very demanding and challenging not made any easier by the latest whiz bang theories about what should be done without the resources to do it. That is why teachers are working far in excess of Working Hours Directive and leaving in droves. By the way my daughter has just returned from China seeing how they teach maths and is now the maths advisor at one of the largest junior schools in the country. When I did my Cert.Ed. (FE) we were shown a video of an "ideal teaching environment" where the kids were literally dancing around playing and in no state to absorb anything. This was a lesson, not playtime. the lecturer got very upset when all the engineering lecturers pointed ut that no learning was taking place. Like wise when did my C&G 730 certificate at a MOD establishment the lecturer from a civilian institution was bemused when the regimental police drilled an apprentice with no laces in his boots in full view of the class rooms. He simply could not comprehend that if people have no self discipline they need to be taught it. I strongly suspect that there are a number of my students on this forum who took one of my Boaters courses. Maybe they will give you an idea of my capabilities as far as getting things across. Degrees do not automatically produce excellent practitioners and they debar any number who would make good practitioners within their knowledge base. As I said, all too often those who hold a degree have achieved it by being brilliant but that often (not always) precludes them for understanding other less well endowed are struggling to understand. I have observed and suffered this first hand.

What a load of bollocks.

If you check its meaning you'll see that a bigot is someone who can't or won't consider any view other than our own. We are both fairly entrenched in our positions so if I'm a bigot that description should apply to both of us equally. Sometimes people, mistakenly, believe that a bigot is someone who holds the political views of the right. This is not so. So, when Brown called the woman who had concerns about migration a bigot he was mistaken. If anything, he was the bigot for not considering her views.

"Uncosted"? Perhaps you didn't read the two manifestos. Corbyn's was entirely costed (with a separate publication itemising everything) whereas May's made fake promises with not a single word about how it would be paid for. Time to stop spouting the same old tired Tory rhetoric and acknowledge the victory of the unelectable over the unassailable. It looks like Corbyn will achieve over 40% of the overall vote...5% more than Blair got in 2005 when he won the election.

Oh aren't you the self righteous, lucky one. Now just suppose you were suddenly unable to do your job, because of a disabling medical condition, and unable to secure another job because of that disability, would you still fruitlessly seek another job, or would you consider applying for benefit, in order that you could live a very basic existence?

My missus until we took this place on a couple of years ago managed a cafe teaching youngsters with learning disabilities skills to be able to obtain jobs in the workplace. The work she did was recognised by Nottinghamshire council and she and her cafe and workers received a visit from Cameron whilst he was pm which was a great boost for the youngsters being trained ( politics aside please ) One of the community services they ran there was operating a food bank. My missus said it used to break her heart at times when decent hard working people many who had been at work for many many years came in total embarrasment for help. Now whilst our politics differ and we can take swipes at each other ( never harm meant ) for whatever reason these food banks are very necessary and do a sterling job. Its sad but it is true.

Because it would cost CRT a fair bit of money to install these and then pay to get it emptied and then pay the clean up costs when people continue to pour their oil in even when it is full - and don't say they would not do it, as some elsan disposal points clearly suffer from this problem. As BW keys are easily bought from ebay, locals (including small 'mobile' service mechanics) will also use the facility, and those without keys will just dump their full containers next to the locked up tank for someone else to empty. All these extra cost would have to be paid by somebody................

I have a two year old, he acts on emotion without much in the way of logic as is the way of a toddler. He has a mate a similar age, at the moment they are getting a bit possessive and fighty with each other. Particularly his mate who is a tad younger. Do we tell him to stand his ground, fight back or remove him from this friendship? No, we talk to them both about ways in which they can co-exists and manage their emotions etc. Its not rocket science and should be a natural response in the promotion of peace. Anyone who is still banging on about Corbyns associations have missed the point entirely and are siding with the perpetuality of conflict. it's obvious the man seeks peace and it's pitiful that the rubber faced irritant that is Paxman deemed it more appealing to bellow this mantra instead of actually looking at his Manifesto.

If you vote conservative you're not 'voting for a leader' - you're voting for a continuation of a culture that, daily, produces stories like the one told by Andy above. That's your choice but don't wrap it up. Either you care what happens to people like Mark* - - or you don't. There are too many examples for you to deny it happens like this. * f'ing scrounger, how dare he get a terminal disease and hope to get any of his paid tax back in a caring and compassionate way.

It would be interesting to have an analysis of actual Vs perceived risk. Obviously people on here perceive cyclists as a risk, but I would think that the real risks lie elsewhere. By far the greatest risk on the towpath is certainly pedestrians, drunk, high, selling drugs or soliciting, or actively looking at nicking stuff or just looking for violence. This group includes fellow boaters moored next to one, and as demonstrated upthread, oneself 'losing it' from time to time. However this group is not recognised as a group, so people's brains don't see the risk. Instead cyclists, identifiable by conducting a non-shared activity and possibly dressed differently, and perhaps enjoying healthy well being denied oneself, are seen as an 'out' group and the first response of the primitive part of brain is to search for danger in such a group, or interepret their activity as a danger that should be stopped. And ideally punished. Once the idea is there people then search for reinforcement of that belief, and interpret every cyclist passed as a near miss, in which they narrowly escaped being 'mown down' by a member of 'the lycra brigade'. The language used reveals the demons in the head of the speaker. It is a bit like all those people constantly making cups of tea as boats 'speed' past. I suspect it may have something to do with too much time alone in a small space, with one's own thoughts.