Soapy FFC

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/dec/01/sunak-parthenon-marbles-matter-of-law-denies-hissy-fit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67423745 Maybe Sunak could change the law to allow the Marbles to be sent back. if it's OK to try and rip up laws in order to send people to a foreign country (for which they have no connection), then it should be OK to try and rip up laws in order to send some statues to a foreign country (from where they originally came).

I've found the best way to eat banana is on toast with nutella. As long as you don't go overboard with the nutella it's fine, and it's now my supper snack of choice. I've been using the NHS weight loss app for 9 weeks now, and I've lost 11 lb / 5kg. So just over a pound a week, which I believe is a good rate for long term loss.

Got a glossy leaflet through the door this morning from Roz McCall MSP, purporting to be her 2023 annual report. Having read and reread it, there is no single mention of the party she is a member of. I had to google her name to see she is a Tory, but I fully suspected that by the lack of any party affiliation on the leaflet.

The RSPB forums have been getting swamped with spam the last couple of days.

The low level lights either end of the Queensferry Crossing.

That would be just plain silly, wouldn't it

Petroineos (Ineos & PetroChina) only have two refineries, Grangemouth and Lavera in France. Ineos only really got into refining when they bought the two refineries as part of the purchase of Innovene, the petrochemicals business that BP sold off. The two refineries at those sites were so integrated with the petrochemical parts that BP sold the whole lot rather than holding onto the refineries. Ineos have never really liked having refineries due to the costs involved in running them, hence why they went into partnership with PetroChina (who had deep pockets), so it's not really a surprise that they are now pulling the plug on Grangemouth. There is a part of me that thinks this may be part of a plan by Ineos to try and get funding from the governments, but I think that's just wishful thinking, but given how Ineos has conducted business in the past I wouldn't put it past them. However, given the state of refining in Europe, it was probably only time before at least one refinery closed, so it was just a big game of chicken to decide what refinery it would be. Once/if it closes, there will still be a terminal importing products and distributing them to the various markets. This type of thing has already happened with several UK refineries over the last 20 years or so. Elsewhere in the UK Inoes are a chemicals company, apart from the Forties pipeline that brings oil from the North Sea for processing before being exported to the various markets.

It's like shops, where they jack up prices a month or so before a sale, then cut the prices at the sale and say you're saving loads.

Lots of info on this page. https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/thermostats-and-heating-controls/ I don't think there is a simple straight answer

Rightly or wrongly, I've always interpreted "market value" as how much I would have been able to sell my car for, not how much it would be to replace it with a similar car. Semantics I know, but probably important given differences in selling and retail values. Maybe I've been too pessimistic in what insurance will pay.

Agreed. For as long as I remember my insurance will only pay full replacement value for a car less than a year old.

Even worse is when fully grown adult men also wear the shorts and socks to complete the whole strip look.

I won a couple of £1's one month. Apart from that, nothing.

This...

But I thought that since inflation has been cut everything was almost back to 'normal'

The Heinz Beans advert with the guy on holiday.

When will politicians learn that it’s just better to admit right from the off that they made a mistake, apologise, and then make amends by paying the bill. It’s not like there is any precedent of politicians digging a major hole after a fairly minor, in the scheme of things, balls up. As has been said, it’s rarely the actual act that brings a politician down, but the way they deal with it afterwards.

I was thinking that after I posted, but like you said it was so short it probably doesn't matter.

But the Truss and Johnson govts, of which he was a major part, will be nothing to do with him and the current govt.

According to the Mirror

Surely the uneven roads will be no problem for the Range Rovers many of them no doubt drive?

No doubt in their driveway they will put the kids into the car on the driver's side as that's the side that they themselves are going to get in. So come parking at the side of the road the kids are then at the road side. No forward thought about what's best, all about what's easiest.

That's the thing that gets me apart from the entitlement that he showed in in thinking we should pay for his behaviour. Why is it even possible for a mobile phone company to allow anyone to rack up an £11000 bill in a week. Where are the affordability checks? If you go for credit anywhere else they will check you can afford to pay back the credit. Mobile phone companies seem to be able to bypass these checks and just let you incur massive debt. I know there are nominal limits on roaming bills, but they are so easy to opt out of they are almost meaningless in practice.

I read an article many years ago, so not sure if it will still be valid, that said when living in a city centre it costs less to use taxis, public transport, and the occasional hire of a car, than it does to own a car given insurance costs, road tax, parking charges, depreciation, etc.

Ah the problems you get when you have a city full of tenement blocks that house 8 or so families, who all want to have 2 cars and park them outside their block where there is space for maybe 3 cars at the most. People who live in a city environment need to lose their sense of entitlement when it comes to cars.