Paul

Not at all, I consider every member of this forum to be a friend, some who I have met and others I have yet to meet. Some I agree with, others I don't. Still a friend and one I hope to raise a glass with at some point down the road, when this crazy world allows. It is for each of us to determine for ourselves if we are following the guidelines as they are intended. The first person we deceive is ourselves. My Grandma taught me that line when I was knee high to a grasshopper.

The problem with intelligence is that it can be very selective and is often not supported by common sense. The most intelligent person I know could (and has) sent a rocket to mars but can't put oil in his own car or decide what needs putting is his suitcase. Ask him about directional stability in a low gravity environment or thrust vectors for critical velocity in an elliptical orbit and he'll wax lyrical for hours with words I've never heard before let alone understand. It's not those that struggle to understand the rules that annoy me so much, my wife has a learning difficulty and without someone to explain what is and is not acceptable would struggle to understand exactly what she can and cannot do. Colin, my rocket man friend referenced above wouldn't have a clue if his wife didn't tell him. Let's be honest with all the different tiers and lock downs we have or have had it is not easy for any of us. What does get my goat is those who know exactly what the guidelines mean, what they should and should not do but who use the lack of actual legislation to justify to themselves as acceptable activities which they are fully aware are not intended by the guidelines, but not prohibited by legislation, with the defense of "I am not breaking any law". The people who saw fit to buy toilet rolls, hand sanitiser etc by the hundreds and then try reselling them at inflated prices on ebay were not breaking any laws. Still I have a name for them, which I have deleted from this post, I have already been told off by Grendel once this week. Happy Christmas.

are these tiers, including tier 4 backed by legislation, or will we see the same debate that we had for the November lock down where "guidance" and "legislation" were very different leaving countless loopholes options for those morons people who decide that the rules don't apply to them to drive twenty miles to take their recreation, shop etc?

My lap top is starting to show it's age, but I am not going to replace it for some time yet. It's an I7, albeit an older series, has SSDs and tons of ram. The issue is the video. I have two video adaptors, the Intel HD "onboard" graphics and an NVidia GeForce 2gb video card which is the upgrade. The problem is that the NVidia card is starting to struggle with some 3d or HD applications, I get a sort of scratching sound and in the worst case the screen hangs requiring a reboot. I have made sure all drivers are up to date. If I disable the NVidia the onboard grpahics work fine, though the quality is not so good, but it doesn't crackle or hang, I assume because it can call upon as much system memory as it needs. I thought there would be a setting to allow the NVidia to use system memory but I cannot find anything, in fact in the NVidia set up all there seems to be is "Quality / Balanced / Performance. Whichever setting I use makes no difference to the problem. Does anyone know if, and if so how I allocate system memory to the graphics card?

I'm afraid this is 100% about Brexit and 0% Covid. The UK is not the first country to announce a COVID mutant strain, in fact the first I believe was Spain, were borders closed then? No they were not.

Electric cars with a specified towing capacity are starting to appear, but as yet there seems to be no proper testing on how towing, a 1500kg caravan for example would reduce the vehicles range. I understand one of the clubs, Caravan Club or Camping and Caravan Club are trying to get Tesla to support a test on the Model X range when towing but Tesla have declined, which gives a good idea of what the result might be. Battery electric vehicles will never be a viable replacement for all of our petrol and diesel cars. We simply cannot generate sufficient power to charge them all, the world does not have enough lithium to produce all the batteries even to replace a fraction of the cars currently on the road, we cannot afford the infrastructure to charge them all, even if we could build them, and generate enough power, something which is not helped by the fact that the auto industry continues to refuse to adopt a standard charging technology so a charger for one make may not charge cars of another make. The UK has set a deadline of 2035 for the end of cars which use petrol or diesel, it was the first major nation to set a deadline and the current deadline is the earliest of all those nations. The fact is the dates will be driven by the motor industry, not the UK government. I can promise you now there is nobody at Toyota, GM, Ford, Volkswagen etc worrying about what targets the UK government set, in fact they don't give a jot. Most, it would appear would be ready to meet a 2035 target, but only if it suits them. I'm sorry to burst your bubble Mr Johnson but the worlds motor industry does not hang on your targets and deadlines. The future of private cars will either mean far fewer cars on the road, or alternative technologies of which the only one which could meet all requirements is the hydrogen fuel cell. There is no doubt that the fuel cell will play a role in zero emission road transport, I personally thing that it will be the fuel of the future, the electric car is a short term stop gap. I have little doubt that in 50 years time the world will look back and think " did we really try and use electric cars "? Once all of that has been sorted, we then have to face the fact that whatever we do, it will impact the global production of greenhouse gasses by the tiniest fraction of one percent. If we want to stop global warming, climate change call it what you will then we need to stop factories in China, India, even the USA belching out huge quantities of carbon gasses, many of which are producing batteries for electric cars ......

janet.mundy1@ntlworld.com This lady hand makes mattresses to any shape in almost any quality, from budget foam to fully posture sprung, with or without memory foam or pillow tops, standard, semi ortho or full orthopaedic. We have always had new mattresses made when buying caravans and never been disappointed. She made our current mattress, 8 inch semi ortho sprung with a 2 inch pillow top, 4'6" x 6'6"with cut away corners on one side top and bottom, all covered in a high quality embroidered damask cover it is every bit as comfortable as our home mattress and cost around £200, around a quarter of the price of a replacement from a caravan dealer and much better than the original. I think she charges by the overall size and makes little if any extra cost for shaping. All she needs is a simple diagram of the shape with the basic dimensions and she can make anything I can promise you now you will not find better quality and value. Website is https://www.custommademattress.co.uk/range.php

Timbo ... one pound nineteen bob 11 pence and three farthings? Your worse than a b.... sorry, mustn't sweat in such exalted company, blessed petrol stations. Add the extra farthing and call it two quid.

Not true, he was for a time part of the Mercedes AMG Young Driver program but he's no longer under any form of contract or agreement with them, he is independently contracted to Williams, not "placed" there by Mercedes. Mercedes did try and persuade Claire Williams to release him for 2021, she flatly refused, hence Bottas was confirmed for another year. Then of course the Williams management changed, by which time Bottas' contract had already been confirmed. The ethos at Mercedes would not allow them to retrench a driver after contracting him, the team just don't do that sort of thing. It looks likely to happen for 2022 though a lot will change in F1 by then. Totally new cars, new simplified power units, a range of standardised components, and remember Mercedes AMG have not yet even confirmed their entry to F1 beyond 2021. There is a line of thought they may withdraw their works team and support either McLaren or Williams as the official team entry as their parent company Daimler AG looks to recover losses due to the Covid pandemic. Even if Mercedes do continue in F1 which I personally think is most likely there is no guarantee that they will enjoy the superiority which they have for the past 7 years. The rule changes for 2022 look likely to make aerodynamics the primary component of performance again, rather than engines as it is now and Red Bull have the undisputed king of aero, Aidrian Newey in their locker whose achievements in car design make even Mercedes' performance pale in to insignificance. His cars have won no less than ten F1 world titles as well as several other titles in single seater racing such as PPG Cart/Indycar. Changes such as will happen in 2022 usually lead to a shake up of the top teams, there is no reason to think it will not do so again. Over the past twenty years we have seen a period of dominance by Ferrari under Ross Brawn, then Red Bull under Newey and now Mercedes under James Allison and Andy Cowell all brought about by significant rule changes. The changes n 2022 are designed in part to reduce cost but also give power unit customer teams like McLaren and Racing Point (soon to be Aston Martin) a better chance to compete against their engine provider's factory team. It will be a fascinating watch.

Without being political in anyway, whether we leave the EU with a deal, without a deal, whether the divorce is annulled and we all decide to go back in, whether Boris wins the next election, or if he loses it nothing to do with boating will EVER get cheaper.

if you're varnishing the top I see no reason to do anything other than varnish the bottom.

Mercedes cannot afford to start buying drivers out of contracts. There is a spending cap of $145m for next season and whilst that doesn't include driver salaries it does include contract fees. In comparison, last year Mercedes spent around $400 on formula 1. They have enough economies to make without costing themselves around $20m dollars in contract fees.

The only reason for the close finish was the late safety car which caused all the drama in the Mercedes pit lane and put all cars back on the lead lap, prior to that Russell looked likely to lap everyone up to the top five, and some cars twice. What has been good all season has been the amount of overtaking, largely down to the fact that the rescheduled season has been run on many older, more traditional race tracks rather than the modern "tilkedrome" circuits many of which make overtaking very difficult. I think Russell has a good chance, the FIA had approval for the F1 teams to enter the UAE for Sundays race as a protected bubble, nobody who did not travel as part of that bubble will be permitted entry without quarantine, so Hamilton, if he does return the mandatory two negative tests would need special permission from the UAE government. as well as the FIA to enter the bubble.

leave them closed and miscreants will assume you are hiding something. leave them open with nothing on view and they will see there is nothing to pinch.

Very sad news breaking this morning of the death of Peter Alliss, former professional golfer and commentator. For me he was the voice of golf, he reached a level of his craft which few ever manage and as a sports commentator he ranks as one of the very, very best. He was one of the pantheon, alongside Murray Walker, John Arlott, Clive Everton and Sid Waddell. It amazes me that Alliss was never honoured, something which I shall never understand. Another demonstration of the random nature of our honours system. I will long remember during a commentary on the Open many years ago a golfer had written to him asking if he would mention during commentary the centenary of his local club, and Alliss duly obliged. The correspondent was a Major Sir Gerry Pending and the name of the club, when said quickly had somewhat rude overtones. It was a few minutes before Alliss realised or it was pointed out to him what he had said. He tried to make an apology and descended into a fit of the giggles which went on almost as long as the famous "leg over" moment of Test Match Special. rest in peace, Peter Alliss.

Please remember not to post any timings or results. Respect those who are waiting for the VHS release.

I did wonder about waiting 'till the New Year before posting it, but thought what the heck, be militant! It does seem like they are having a problem squeezing him in to the car. The good thing for Mercedes about Lewis and Valtteri is they are both roughly 5'8" which allows them to build quite a compact survival cell with little adjustment, whereas Russell is well over 6', it might well be that he will not find an optimum position in the car.

It's good to see that Mercedes have chosen George Russell to replace Lewis Hamilton. It will add a great deal of interest to Sundays race.

Those who watched it live knew what had happened and didn't need to be informed - agreed the ones who would watch the highlights, who wouldn't want to be informed - also agreed and those not interested who probably wouldn't read the thread anyway. not the case, as how often do we see people post on a thread to say they are not interested? It has happened here. Either they are not as uninterested as they claim to be or there existence is so sad that they spend their time reading things about which they are genuinely not interested. I have long since learned the lesson not to post about these things for a good 48 hours after the fact, to avoid upsetting those who i) watch live, ii) watch highlights, iii) recorded it to watch later and iv) went to the moon and recorded it to watch a week on Thursday. That said the thread title was unambiguous, so if you chose to read it don't complain about what you learned from it. Now we have dealt with the circumstances of the thread, what about the circumstances of the accident? My thought was oh no, it's Ronnie Peterson all over again. As I watched it live I had very low hopes of Grosjean surviving. To see him emerge from the flames, largely through his own efforts fifteen seconds later was nothing short of a miracle. Of course we know that the cars are designed to give the drivers every possible chance of surviving an impact, there are features throughout the car that most casual F1 fans would not have heard of, all designed to protect the driver in his cockpit, the proper name of which is "survival cell". What was not so impressive was the performance of the safety barrier. Armco barriers of this type are not intended for high speed impact at relatively oblique angles. They are designed to arrest and deflect objects which "side swipe" them or to stop objects at low speeds. The barrier was used in this location because it was not on the outside of a corner, and so considered somewhere unlikely to suffer an impact of this kind, but it was not parallel to the track, it bends toward to the track to guard an opening in the barrier through which cars are recovered from the previous corner. If you cast your mind back to 2007 I think it was Robert Kubica suffered a terrible accident at Canada where he too hit a barrier, this time a concrete one which was not parallel to the track, this time a concrete wall at the hairpin. It's long overdue that Formula 1 reviewed all tracks which have barriers which angle towards the track and ensure they are redesigned and if they cannot be realigned then they must have impact reducing liners added. There are a number of different types available, the best to my mind is made up of lots of vertical hollow foam tubes designed to absorb impact energy and they have a lower density midway up their height which "catches" the front of the car and holds it level, it sucks it in almost and stops it submarining underneath or flying over the top. It then slows the car in a controlled manner before it hits the barrier. Either way something must be done. Romain Grosjean was very lucky on many counts, that he did not lose consciousness in the impact and was able to undo his belts and escape, that the marshals and medical car were on the scene so quickly to get fire extinguisher powder in the right place to give him an escape route, but not least that a) the barrier did not rupture the fuel tank, which is actually more like a bag, and that he was not physically pinned inside his car by the deformed barrier.

I looked at the map which colours individual towns and villages by there condition above or below average, which is largely what determines the tier you are in, and everywhere seems to be above average. We are above average despite there being no cases in the two villages which make up our little section of the map. Now I'm no mathematician but surely not everywhere can be above average?

The trouble is that if other land owners see this then they might, quite probably will start to think why should we not issue permits and charge? If they can do it, so can we, and who is to stop them. In my experience there is no such thing as an exception to a rule, simply a flood gate waiting to be opened. As for the BASG I'm sorry but I rate them only slightly above the RSPB in the list of most dangerous organisations. There work with the Cators to close permissive access to the bank side between Woodbastwick and Cockshoot has done them irreparable damage in my eyes, and exposes their true intentions. I'm firmly in the camp that the Broads are there to be enjoyed equally by everyone, and with a little consideration for each other that is quite possible as things are. I am not sure that that is the agenda of the BASG.

Anglian Internet in Rackheath would be good people to speak to. They specialise in this sort of installation. I could tell you what I use and am very happy with, but it might not be the best device for your application.

With digital signals the way the signal is emitted can mean that being too close to the transmitter is bad. A digital signal can still be strong or weak, but unlike analogue where a device will make the best of whatever signal it gets, with digital a device either has enough data or it doesn't, so you don't get fuzzy snowy pictures on digital TV for example, either you get a picture, or if the signal is too weak it will break up and stop. The same is true with digital data, although once you have sufficient signal to create a connection the strength of the signal can still effect the data width available and therefore download and upload speeds. What you need is a wireless repeater, which connects to the marina wifi then creates a new signal that you connect your phone and other devices to. They do come in different "flavours" and the decent ones are not cheap so I would be inclined to get some basic information from the marina, such as what devices they use, then seek professional help as to what type of extender to use. The strength of an extender is that they have much more powerful receivers and antennae than your mobile phone or tablet, so can maximise what signal is available, however if there is no signal the best devices in the world will not help you. The best have the option for external antennae which could be important in your situation.

In my view the more we extend Christmas the less special it becomes. To see Christmas items in shops in August is a joke, and to see decorations up in November equally ridiculous.