KirstyH

***** Adding to this chorus of recommendation for Aaron rather than starting a new thread - Aaron completed a much-needed repair to the ceiling and substantial plastering repairs to a main wall and around windows - excellent job. He explained things in an easy to understand way, went above & beyond when the job needed extra work, affordable and didn't mind looking at a few extra things. No hesitation to recommend!

Great to see this doing so well Jim - final stretch for anyone interested in local solar/LED and retrofit schools projects!

Another recommendation! Gary and team have just finished a pretty extensive refurb and repair on outside of house involving full scaffolding, sorting some pretty big cracks in parapet wall, surrounding brickwork and around window area to tackle leaks and damp. He also advised and repaired other external issues that only became visible once the scaffold was up, including repointing whole other part of the wall and a damaged area above the main door. Really thorough knowledge, great communication keeping us updated at all times. He made helpful suggestions and outlined costs at each step - providing photos and videos showing the detail (via WApp). Really good job.

Goldcrest in Peckham Rye Japanese Gardens yesterday - really close-up view, lovely.

Good thread. I liked rahrahrah's response to the first Q about why so personal - being about one's sense of identity and place in the world. Two other Qs strike me i) on reversibility/Art.50 - what does the politial window for reversibility look like wrt how this is seen in Europe? Is there a legal point-of-no-return after which you can't trigger the 'reverse' during the negotiating process and would the default simply be back to BAU (as now)? Even if legally possible, what about the politics - would the dumped 27 want a full marriage again? How much political capital would have been lost through a heavy-handed negotiation strategy? What are the consequences for Britain's role in the EU? National elections in other EU countries next year surely make the landscape even more uncertain. Attitudes can harden quickly. ii) Don't forget the other front - TM has to manage the relationship w other 3 nations of UK - including with the passage of any 'EU Repeal Act'. Another heavy handed bad start - fobbing them off with a hotline to D-Davis. In addition to the absent debate over which Brexit option, I don't have any confidence at all that they know how to run a complex negotiation beyond chest-beating to the media.

Coming in to this conversation late re LHR (not read the other 17 pages) I'd note this on noise sensitivity - those that self-describe as noise sensitive know what they mean and can have conversations about it. Those that don't might have no idea what is being talked about (and may be prone to saying it doesn't exist). I think if noise was coloured or smelled like cigarette smoke you'd be able to have better conversations about it. I think there must be a spectrum of how much stress noise causes. At one end one supermarket has an hour a week for autistic people - no music, range of other noise stimulants turned off/down. I'd personally much rather be in that environment, no pounding music, relentless aural adverts etc. There was also a news story about blood pressure and car noise last week. Obviously you work around it, but the prospect of greater aircraft density is a real concern. Moving down here from Nth London a decade ago, I was gob-smacked at the aircraft noise. I can't work out when the week that you're supposed to have some respite is, I wish they'd publish it, like tide-tables.

For the facts (referenced), this is useful: http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/uk-airports/heathrow-airport/briefing-the-key-facts-figures-about-a-heathrow-3rd-runway/ Interested in above point on 'airspace redesign' stephent - I do want to know the noise implications and flight path consequences. There is little respite from plane noise at the moment, I've been told there are supposed to be weeks when a different LHR runway is used which alter the fly-overs of this area, but honestly I've not noticed it regularly. PS study on link between blood-pressure and road traffic noise reported on yesterday.

JoneM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I feel we need to vote with our feet, the last > time I was in the plex we were surrounded by empty > seats... It's hard to justify an argument to save a > facility which is being under used. You should have been there 6pm on a Saturday night for the Lego movie. Rammed (and deafening).

Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > You need to realise that your 'IN' argument falls > in line with the political and urban > intelligentsia line, and therefore the last thing > you should be doing in support of staying in is to > wag your finger at the opposing camp, who are just > lay people who see the EU as bureaucractic. You'll > only encourage the anti establishment movement, > just as happened in Scotland. > > Louisa. I just don't get the point on Scotland here? Wasn't one of your posts above about living the dream and throwing off the shackles of Brussels (I paraphrase) was somewhat similar to the pro-Independence arguments - except that there was a positive vision for Scotland, with underlying values of what that stood for (whether you agreed with it or not). Well, let's see how the Scottish elections go. Thing with the anti-EU debate is that it seems to be more about some contra idea of a Brussels bureaucracy (and hand-picked issues that people don't like about it - I'd have a contra list) rather than the underlying values of a positively envisaged UK. Frankly I don't think I'd want to live in your version of the UK - the summary version sounds a bit too Sarah Palin for me. The Tory 7 that are leading No and presumably fancy themselves running the country - absolutely awful.

The Tories announced an intent to end coal use in UK electricity generation by 2025, last November. This goal has nothing to do with the EU. FYI - Boris also having a heartfelt moment (not a very long moment) on Scotland, in his own words: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/11080893/Scottish-independence-Decapitate-Britain-and-we-kill-off-the-greatest-political-union-ever.html

Boris, FFS. Don't forget Brexit begets Scexit, or makes it far more likely. The SNP manifesto at the 2015 election sought a double threshold to leave - UK wide plus all the individual nations separately. The whole thing about the Scottish Ref that many here appeared to miss is that - at the point of voting - it becomes the risk you are prepared to take that something [for some people, anything] is better than what you have at present. With the IndyRef the entire enterprise had a foundation of a positive vision of what Scotland could be *whether you agreed or not*. There is none around Brexit, only negativity, and idea that some version of 'Brussels' is all crap and some, frankly archaic, view about 'taking control', of what exactly - the waves? What is it people think they would most like to get rid of from Brussels? Can we admit what we don't know, or is it going to be sloganeering? And FYI the coal mines shut under Thatcher, not because of Brussels policy on climate change; an accelerated shut down of UK coal-fired power stations will happen anyway, I estimate with or without air pollution rules, but of course some would rather pollute their kids. That's the point, who's version of Britain do you get with a Brexit?

I absolutely want enforcement of 20mph - this is about quality for people and safety for kids - are we ever going to get kids on bikes (for me that like fish in the Thames being a sign of water quality). It's not just average speed its the aggressive acceleration if they do slow. I've definitely noticed my res. street being used as a rat run, esp vans at 7.30/8am. Over about the last year one of the most dangerous bits of my commute (bike) has become front door to Queens Road.

I have just re-watched the brilliantly funny oz documentary 'cane toads' (youtube, 1988)- there's a great clip with a van careering from one side of the road to the other at high speed to kill the cane toads. I always think of that on roads with those completely pointless speed bumps with the gaps in them. What are they for anyway - ambulances?

Farage can't stay away; others want to get away: #takeuswithyouscotland (an antidote to all the disgusting divisiveness spouted around indyref and this election.

Here's post-election ashcroft poll results (2-sides) about why people voted for the parties they did across UK (yes, a poll - but qualitative and post-fact): http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/LORD-ASHCROFT-POLLS-Post-vote-poll-summary1.pdf Holyrood.com highlight the very high score of the SNP vote on values/principles in their choice. Another interesting one to me was Guardian's article about share price impacts of the election - banks, estate agents, bookies etc all going up. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/08/general-election-2015-conservatives-win-city-reaction If only we had a numeric barometer for public 'shares' - NHS, human rights, etc that we could compare it to.