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If we ever get to a stage where our politicians prioritise the National interest of the Country and it's indigenous population, we would secure a fair and affordable national energy supply, likewise a clean and healthy water supply and sewage free water courses etc. When they've finished with the self harm of economic sanctions on Russia and the insanity of net-zero, they will ensure that our people are worse off than their parents were. 😠

I don’t understand why the standing charge should be lower in London when it’s supposedly a national grid. Leaving that aside though, it’s a balance thing where on one side you have those struggling to pay and on the other, those rich enough to invest in energy saving. Tip the scales too far towards those that can afford it and you automatically penalize those that can’t. If you’ve got money to invest, then going solar can still give you a good return especially when you consider the cost of a system is now only half what is was just a few years back. Increasing the standing charge has increased my bill for sure but I’ll always be paying less than those without solar. It might only average out to be a pound or so a day with my small-scale system, but it all adds up over the year. While most look at solar as a personal investment, there are some like myself that see it as not only helping myself but also helping others by helping to ensure the security and stability of the country’s energy supply. Bill 😊

Seems it depends on one's interpretation of "fair".

Interesting but a bit on the heavy side. I had to read it right through three times to really get the gist of it. 😊 As I said earlier, the basic speed recognition bit works fairly well, maybe not quite as good as a gps based system but there are times such as temporary road works or a newly flooded road for example where it actually wins over the gps version. When the signs are clear it works perfectly but in poor light or with dirty signs it can often miss them. One of the things people have complained about is the car detecting the 20mph signs for the side roads which probably explains my Manchester Road problem. Fortunately, it’s not a problem for me as I don’t get any annoying beeps, just a small red over speed warning, whereas this years cars have to turn it off every time they use the car which has to be bloomin annoying. This was Toyotas' response to a request to roll back the software update. Current European Legislation states that particular safety related driving aide systems should revert "on" with every ignition cycle, from a certain manufacturing year if the vehicle is equipped with such a function. As UK law in this area still closely follows European law, the same applies in the UK, this speed alert system must operate as per the Legislation, regrettably there is no way around this for any manufacturer of new vehicles. I’d like to have a system that would give me a bing if I was genuinely speeding but I don’t want it sounding off because I’m 1 mph over the limit like my old satnav did. From my perspective, the car has far too many bells and whistles with multiple menus and sub menus, and you shouldn’t have to mess about with it all every time you start the car. At the end of the day it’s the drivers responsibility to observe the limits and a system that you can leave on and live with is always going to be more helpful than one that constantly gets switched off because it's anoying. Bill 😊

The consultation was by Ofgem. Their reasoning was that the costs are not shared fairly by using consumption alone. The electricity network away from the SE is more overhead and subject to weather damage up here and that costs more. Read the consultation yourself.

Clearly a disaster waiting to happen. The spec is here https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2021:409:FULL . It is only specified to work with road sign recognition in EU countries so the behaviour within the UK must be specified elsewhere. The testing specification is in the above document. Whilst that is the requirement for testing it does not allow what you asked for Bill. In my estimation your idea is superior to the single volume but faster activation the more you exceed the limit which in the tests. However the person you spoke to is not entirely correct because meeting the EU test spec is not a legal requirement in the UK only the less specified UN requirement in OJ 2019/2144. Since the tests do not specify UK/NI road signs there could be problem in the UK software settings. If an accident happens because someone hastily overtakes a car driving too slow because it read, or interpreted, the signs incorrectly there will inevitable be arguments about liability. When Councils don't stop speed limit signs being obscured ahead of speed cameras and the driver claims it is because of reliance on a system that the Government insisted was used on every journey!!!!!

I frankly can't believe that the energy companies have consulted on increases in standing charges, as it simply provides no incentive to reduce demand in the interest of climate change. Surely, the weight of charging should fall on actual usage as an incentive to reduce energy consumption ? If standing charges are used to finance new infrastructure, surely that should be funded across the board and not localised ? Apparently they are £40 in London but much greater up North. I get the impression that our utilities are solely interested in their shareholders at the expense of customers, and without adequate investment in service provision . 😠

Another thing that’s getting a lot of complaints about the new laws is the auto steering that tries to keep the car between the white lines. Good in theory on a clear road but around the town where there’s parked cars, it pulls away from the white line towards the parked car which is bloody scary. Ok, it doesn’t do this if you indicate every slight move but it’s an unnerving feeling rather like tram lining. I want the car to go where I want it too, not where it thinks it should. Again, from January 2024 this facility by law has to default to on every time the car starts but at least with this one it’s only a button press to disable it and instead get even more annoying beeps. Fortunately, I beat the deadline for all these changes by three months, so when I turn it off, it stays off. Bill 😊

i wonder if it compensates for the tolerance allowed by law for speedometers? speedometers are allowed to over read by 10% plus a certain speed which i once read was about 6mph so if you are doing an actual 40 mph your speedo could be reading 50mph. to get an accurate or more accurate reading then a satnav speed display will help as it goes by the satellite signal rather than the signal that powers the speedometer. i know that mine has a lag on the reading, when i stop at lights my digital readout shows 5mph for a few seconds even though the handbrake is on. (probably just a quirk of the software) i do know that it can read anywhere between 30 and 32 without the speed apparently changing, that i can feel anyhow. the only thing, apart from the horn and reversing sensor when you get close, that beeps is the indicators. sounds like one of those machines that they hook up to you in hospital and beeps at about the same rate as a heartbeat. if i ever hear it give one long beep i will know that the car has died...🤣

Here’s a thing. I’ve just joined a Facebook group dedicated to my new car and it seems that everyone’s moaning about some of the safety features that became mandatory on all new cars at the beginning of this year. The main complaint is a beeping noise that goes off the instant you go just 1mph over the speed limit. I had a sat nav app on my phone that did the same which used to drive me bonkers. Apparently, it’s possible with a bit of messing to go into the menu and turn this off but it turns itself back on again every time the car starts. This is supposed to be a safety feature but if most people turn it off because it’s so annoying then someone’s got their thinking wrong. The only person who’d think this is a good idea is my sister-in-law who swears blind she’s never ever gone over the speed limit in her life and that all those queuing behind her are all idiots. Toyota say it’s the law and they can’t do anything about it; it’s either turn it off and risk a speeding fine or put up with the racket, there’s no middle ground. What make it worse though is that my car uses optical recognition of road signs, which is a brilliant idea but it's prone to missing the odd sign, so I often end up driving down Manchester Road with it telling me the limit is 20mph. This problem could easily have been avoided with a degree of compromise and flexibility in the software. Just making the beep volume proportional to any overspeed would be easy and probably be acceptable to most drivers but I suspect that there’d be some jobsworth somewhere along the line who insists that the law is the law. Bill 😊

There's an old saying Bill - "where there's a will, there's way" - put simply, there is no will on the part of our politicians or the civil service, to reverse this cultural demographic change to our society. Our lifeboat is literally being swamped an resource demands ever increasing. A senior in the Bank of England has declared that our housing crisis is solely down to excess demand created by immigration. The Rwanda plan won't work, simply because the numbers that eventually flown out will be less than 1% of those stored in our hotels. Puncturing the boats isn't working, because of the half hearted efforts of the French. You mean to tell me that the French Police can't locate and license the production and sale of rubber boats ? Currently, our UKBF picks up these migrants and provides a taxi service to Dover, so why not to Calais ? No, it's all about social and political manipulation by the political class to ensure they retain power for the Uni-Party, same thing in the EU and in the US. While we're distracted by "the boats", legal migration is going through the roof, cos they need cheap labour to fill our care homes, while our young folk stay in bed with mental issues. What we're seeing, is the destruction of Western society from inside, no wonder the Russians don't want to be contaminated. 😠

So we'll have generations of parents complaining about little Jonny or Sahara being exploited on the internet, the reality being that it is self inflicted. Alas these days nothing is self inflicted, it's always someone else's fault - so zero sympathy from me. I won't be around to see it, but I guess we'll sleep walk into crisis, where AI takes over completly, and we become surplus to requirements. Such is the process of evolution.

Well yes I understand that last point, it’s similar to what Mr Erdogan did in Turkey when he allowed in millions of Syrians. Putting party politics before what’s best for the country is exactly why this country is in the state it is now. You say the Rwanda plan wont work, but you only think that; you don’t know that for a fact. You say the only way to stop them is to puncture the boats but that’s exactly what they are trying to do at the moment and it’s not working is it. You’d need to put thousands more police on the beaches 24/7 and keep them there indefinitely and that’s just not a realistic or viable solution. People so determined and desperate to get across will just keep on trying. No guessing on this, it’s a fact that we can see happening right now. Towing them back to France would probably be more cost effective than policing the beaches but even if we could legally do that, it’d just be the same endless game of cat and mouse. We end up committing our coastguards and lifeboats only to find they’re back the next day on the first available dinghy. Sounds so simple and obvious though and I’ve even said the same thing myself, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it’s the sort of solution that’s easy to come up with after a few pints in the pub. Bill 😊

Starmer will say anything, do anything, to get into number 10. The reality of his so-called policy is, that it relies on the co-operation of French, which despite a half £ billion bribe, hasn't happened; they're happy to feed their surplus migrants into the UK. If they were serious, they could puncture each and every boat on the beaches, and allow us to tow them to Calais too. Which, at the end of the day, is the only way to stop this invasion. The probability is that Labour will open the flood gates and allow the lot in, then declare an amnesty and convert them into Labour voters, which basically is what it's all about. 😠

That’s not really surprising seeing as they’ve not started deporting anyone yet. It’ll be interesting though to see what happens to the numbers when they do start but until then I’d expect there’ll be an even bigger rush in the coming weeks just to beat any deadline. Quite interesting to see Mr Starmer is now saying the Rwanda plan wont work and the only solution is to go after the organised criminal gangs that are doing the trafficking. I’d argue that these gangs are no different than the drugs gangs. Whether its trafficking drugs or people it’s all the same, so if it’s as simple as going after the gangs, why do we; decades later still have a drugs problem? Close down any dealer or trafficker and the demand stays exactly the same, and as long as there’s a demand, there’ll always be another criminal willing to step in. If we can deter people from getting into the boats in the first place, then we don’t need to chase the traffickers as they’ll all be out of business. I get the distinct feeling that Mr Starmer is deliberately taking this line because unlike the Rwanda solution, it’s simple enough for what you call the plebs to understand and as such might attract more voters come election time. I think he needs to take his political hat off and replace it with his thinking cap. Bill 😊

What's not predictable, will be your excuses in about 6 months time, can't wait for reality to strike. 😑

Just like I said, so predicable and irritating.

😆 Well and truly brain washed ! If we don't blunder our way into WW3, and the Russians take over Ukraine, just wonder what your narrative will be then ?

If you take out the made up bits from that post there isn't much left. The MSM is absolutely not silent on the subject but it doesn't simply parrot the words of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Which is not surprising given how far from the Truth they usually are. It is an information war why do you think the Russians tell the truth - ever? I cannot be bothered to pick you up on specific points so that you can change and come out with other garbage just do us all a favour and take the rubbish down, stick to real things not Putin's lies.

The Western public can be forgiven for their ignorance of events in Ukraine, but as the latest examples of "poking the bear" place us closer to WW3 than ever, the mushrooms are kept in the dark by our Political Leaders, and the MSM is silent on the topic. First we had Macron threatening to place French troops inside Ukraine, namely 1500 Foreign Legionairs; then we had Cameron, British Foreign Sec, advising Ukraine to fire our latest delivery of ballistic missiles at targets inside Russia. Clearly huffing and bluffing, to create strategic ambiguity, alas the Russian don't do "ambiguity", they imediately summoned the French and British Ambassadors to their Foreign Office, and gave them a dressing down, making it clear, that any NATO troops entering the fray would be destroyed and any weapons systems provided and manned by NATO troops, would result in tactical nuclear counter strikes, including targets in their own nation states. So Western Governments have gone quiet, now maintaining an embarrassed and humiliated silence, aided by the MSM. Meanwhile, Zelinski, guarded by ex-SAS bodyguards, has foiled an assassination plot by his own military, now sick of the feckless slaughter of their men. No doubt the Nazi clique surrounding him, will now follow the $ billions of US taxpayer dollars, to their safe refuges in the US, while the average Ukrainian is left to clean up the mess or remain as refugees. 😠

Nowadays there would be an app for that .

I hardly ever look at the thing and don’t routinely carry it about with me, but it does come in handy as a sat nav or for telling me if anything’s wrong with the car. I can make calls from the car by just speaking, which is quite impressive, and if the car ever gets nicked I can even locate it on the phone. A few weeks back, I got into the car and saw a red battery symbol on the dashboard. Oddly enough it started no problem, and it wasn’t until later that I realized the car was telling me that it was my mobile that was flat. Doh Back with the kids though, there’s no way they’re going to give up their devices without a major tantrum and the parents won’t be wanting that, so it won’t happen. If we really want to solve this problem then it needs to be done through a whole raft of legal measures and in that way it doesn’t alienate the parents any further that what they already are. It's a difficult one and getting the genie back in the bottle just about sums up this situation. Bill 😊

people these days are too reliant on their mobiles. just witness the frantic wandering about and mad gestures if they lose the signal. the mass panic when they can't access whatever website or social media site because that site has a problem. the real fear on their faces when the battery shows less than forty percent charge. deprive somebody of their phone for even an hour and they suffer severe anxiety attacks worrying about what they are missing out on or what their mate sitting across the table is doing. if they don't see it on their phone it didn't happen even when it is happening to them. for me a mobile phone is a convenience handy for emergencies and when people need to get in touch with me, the rest of the time it sits either gathering dust on a shelf or sitting idly in a pocket. i will answer mine except when i am driving( i put it in a pocket that is hard to access to help resist the temptation) most of the time it is calls from somebody wanting something. (usually relatives) along the lines of "are you busy. can you......" taxi, lend me, print something.

The latest Starmer stunt, displays his contempt for the history and philosophy of the Labour Party, and his use of it as a public convenience. By allowing a clearly right wing Tory to join Labour as a mere publicity stunt, demonstrates his total lack of political conviction. Likewise, her lack of conviction, must have required a pay-off, like a promised seat in the House of Lords. What a shower of s***te. 😠

People give all sorts of reasons why they think it’s acceptable for a child to be given a mobile device, but you’ll never hear anyone admit to the truth, in that its primarily to keep the kids quiet. Most young families live flats or small houses and parents can’t watch tv or read a book when there’s a room full of noisy kids all bouncing about so the simple solution is to give them all their own mobile devices, sorted! Back in the day when we were getting on our parents nerves, we were told to go out and play but these days you’ll never hear anything like that. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen my grandkids go out to play with friends, ever. My grandkids all have mobile devices, the youngest was only five when his parents got him one as a Christmas present. Now that they’ve all got their own, the house a completely different place. It’s a seventy-mile round trip to visit them and we used to do that maybe once every couple of weeks but these days it’s just Christmas and birthdays. It’s so embarrassing to see the kids actually being forced to look up from their screens to say hello, and repeated again when we leave. I don’t like what I see in all of this but can’t really say anything because I can walk away at the end of the day, but the parents can’t. The only positive in all of this is both parents are sufficiently tech savvy to ensure that the kids devices have the proper safeguards in place. Bill 😊