adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 12, 2023 9:06:10 GMT
We've got a couple of five-digit home-improvements in the pipeline at the moment - a replacement shed (non-trivial size) and a new kitchen. Both from small local businesses, both totally bespoke manufacture. Both have asked for (and been paid) 50% upfront before manufacture starts, months before any install starts. Neither takes plastic, so both have been done by bank transfer. I'm not worried... Much. That's interesting, in that perhaps mine would not have taken plastic if I'd asked. Mine too was 50%, also bespoke. Regardless of what travolta has said later, I don't intuitively find that %age ridiculously high. Likewise. Yes, there's the material cost - but there's also a serious investment of time and labour for them. Having a non-trivial commitment from the customer doesn't seem unreasonable.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 11, 2023 21:45:44 GMT
We've got a couple of five-digit home-improvements in the pipeline at the moment - a replacement shed (non-trivial size) and a new kitchen. Both from small local businesses, both totally bespoke manufacture. Both have asked for (and been paid) 50% upfront before manufacture starts, months before any install starts. Neither takes plastic, so both have been done by bank transfer. I'm not worried... Much. As long as you have done some basic DUE DILLIGENCE... all should be ok.. i wish you well nevertheless.. DD in that they're both suppliers I like and trust, yep. What does that say about their finances? Well, there's the question. No idea. Shed are a reasonable-size local specialist. The delay is in the groundworks (my problem, not theirs). Kitchen is one-man band. He starts fabrication imminently. Both likely to be installed late next month, early September.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 11, 2023 16:27:23 GMT
We've got a couple of five-digit home-improvements in the pipeline at the moment - a replacement shed (non-trivial size) and a new kitchen. Both from small local businesses, both totally bespoke manufacture.
Both have asked for (and been paid) 50% upfront before manufacture starts, months before any install starts. Neither takes plastic, so both have been done by bank transfer.
I'm not worried... Much.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 11, 2023 15:16:26 GMT
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 11, 2023 8:37:23 GMT
It's also worth adding that two years inside is the absolute minimum for death by dangerous driving - to which he pleaded guilty, and of which he is unequivocally guilty. So, yes, the judge was as lenient as it was possible for him to be. www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown-court/item/causing-death-by-dangerous-driving/www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/2A"2A Meaning of dangerous driving. (1) For the purposes of sections 1 and 2 above a person is to be regarded as driving dangerously if (and, subject to subsection (2) below, only if)— (a) the way he drives falls far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver, and (b) it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous."I don't think that is correct. For starters he was sentenced to 2 years and 4 months, which is therefore greater than the minimum sentencing guideline. Secondly, from a very quick look, I think the 2 years is only the sentencing guidelines. I do not know whether there is a statutory minimum, but the offences that have a legal minimum custodial sentence are few. Judges can go outside the sentencing guidelines in exceptional cases. A 96 year old and a custodial sentence is an "exceptional case", regardless of how one might feel that does or doesn't impact sentencing consideration. You're right, I missed the four months. And, tbf, that 2yr is before the discount for a guilty plea, too. So, clearly, the judge thought that the premeditation in ignoring the optician's advice was more serious than simple momentary bad driving. I wonder what an identical case, but for a driver <say> fifteen or twenty years younger, would have seen?
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 11, 2023 7:14:27 GMT
Ok let me throw this one out, I've never heard of cases from Europe where people on benefits are sanctioned, result they shoplift because they need food end up in court where they get fined, they can't pay the fines or if they do it pushes them further into poverty causing them to shoplift again. It's a vicious circle and I've seen someone in it, the end result was he got jailed for nicking 2 mars bars. Why did he get sanctioned believe it or not he was in court but the DWP refused to accept that as a valid reason. I also understand from European friends that they send nearly as many people to jail as we do however they tend to have far shorter sentences.this as an example www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64431903 yes he shouldn't have been drivng and it is tragic what happened but is jailing a man of 96 appropriate and hence lower incarceration rates. Unfortunately though, evidence based approaches to "crime and punishment" tend not to curry much favour with the popular media, the public and hence politicians. Instead the prevailing view tends to be "build more prisons" and "lock 'em up". Jailing someone who is 96 is almost certainly pointless. Unless one thinks its the only way you are going to prevent him doing the same thing again. But what is an appropriate punishment ? I think the answer here would be there simply isn't an "appropriate" punishment that could sensibly be applied, and hence one that is far more "lenient" should prevail because of age. What we should not lose sight of (pun not really intended) is the severity of what he did. He had been told by his optician that he was unfit to drive from an eye sight perspective. His decision to do so was therefore a deliberate act in the full knowledge that he should not do so, and his actions directly resulted in someone's death. The 'edge case' aspect of it is his age and therefore what point to jailing him (and cost). Of course its possible that he lacked cognitive function to understand what he had been told, but I suspect if that was the case it would have been taken into account. There is also another aspect here: what on earth was he doing still driving at that age at all ? EDIT: I also noted this bit, very easy to not notice if not reading the whole article: "Judge Williams said he believed Beer had not mentioned his medical treatment to the DVLA in order to care for his late wife who had dementia." Which adds another level of sadness to the whole thing. It's also worth adding that two years inside is the absolute minimum for death by dangerous driving - to which he pleaded guilty, and of which he is unequivocally guilty. So, yes, the judge was as lenient as it was possible for him to be. www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown-court/item/causing-death-by-dangerous-driving/www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/2A"2A Meaning of dangerous driving. (1) For the purposes of sections 1 and 2 above a person is to be regarded as driving dangerously if (and, subject to subsection (2) below, only if)— (a) the way he drives falls far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver, and (b) it would be obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous."
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 10, 2023 21:15:13 GMT
Ok let me throw this one out, I've never heard of cases from Europe where people on benefits are sanctioned, result they shoplift because they need food end up in court where they get fined, they can't pay the fines or if they do it pushes them further into poverty causing them to shoplift again. It's a vicious circle and I've seen someone in it, the end result was he got jailed for nicking 2 mars bars. Just going to put this here... www.lag.org.uk/article/206242/do-benefit-sanctions-breach-echr-article-3-"ARTICLE 3 - Prohibition of torture No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 10, 2023 15:54:16 GMT
It does but....non-violent offences, prison population that is bulging, and an incarceration rate that is probably/is the highest of the major (and most minor) european countries (for example almost double that of Germany, about 30% higher than France) and much higher (say roughly 2.5 x) than that of Sandanavian countries. And sadly, alcohol and drug additions (if I read correctly) are unlikely to be helped by being in prison. Certainly not drugs. Need to build more prisons if there are not enough spaces. Or perhaps address the actual problems... The issue isn't we're not locking enough people up, because of lack of space. The issue is that there's no space because we're locking too many up. Why are there so many more inside here than Germany?
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 21:54:39 GMT
In the case of DE, estimated to be about what - 2-3 days worth for a P2P conflict ? The US has vastly more. And, if the 10k figure is the right one, that's about 2 days worth.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 21:52:47 GMT
although particularly stupid if you gift it and then continue to live in it without paying a fair market rent, such that you have not a hope in hell of avoiding it being counted as part of your estate on death while at the same time being at risk of being kicked out of it by the person you gifted it to. This is something the particularly wealthy might do: i.e. gift property that is not their main residence. Gifting your main residence is rarely going to work, unless you are prepared to a) make rental payments to continue living in it and b) are willing to take the risk you might be asked to vacate your home. For these reasons it is in fact rarely done. The period is simple in law... its 7 years. For IHT, yes - tapering over years 3-7. But deprivation of assets for care costs has no time limit.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 21:51:34 GMT
Mmm. The phrases you might like to investigate are "gift with reservation" and (when it comes to care costs) "deprivation of assets". And you should investigate the legal right to gift your property within the law to avoid the deprivation of assets... your whole assumtion is made around the facts that someone would be committing an act of unlawfulness ... there is a completely legal way to transfer ones assets. "Giving away" the home you continue to live in, with no market rent being paid... and the "beneficiary" being unaware of the transfer? Yeh, not that.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 19:58:28 GMT
Both Telegraph and Economist articles are paywalled. However, I'm just going to throw this here... www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66144153"Mr Biden's move will bypass US law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1%.
Mr Sullivan, the US national security advisers, told reporters the US cluster bombs have a dud rate of less than 2.5%, while Russia's have a dud rate of between 30-40%, he said."So, yes, the US ones are much less bad than the Russian ones. But it's still both against the international convention (which doesn't apply to either US or Ukraine, since they haven't signed it) and against US law to be doing anything with those US ones. I repeat my comment about "palming off". I can't find a figure for how many cluster munitions the US are looking to provide Ukraine with, but there is apparently a US stock of about 10k cluster munitions already in Europe. To contrast that, the US alone has apparently sent Ukraine more than 100x that number of NATO 155mm shells, and were looking to take their domestic production from 12k/mo to 24k/mo earlier this year, then to 144k/mo within five years, with the bottleneck being machine tooling. Ukraine is apparently consuming nearly 150k/mo currently... www.nbcnews.com/politics/us-provide-cluster-munitions-ukraine-rcna92852www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/03/us-sextuple-155mm-artillery-shell-production-replenish-stocks-sent-ukraine/384542/As for European stocks... www.defense-aerospace.com/europes-155mm-ammo-stocks-where-they-should-be-and-how-to-get-there/Basically, we've all been caught with our trousers down, unprepared and apparently incapable of spending sufficient to scale up rapidly. So, no, 10k (if that is the number) is not going to be much of a difference at all. It's rummaging in the back of the cupboard for something token. I'll also point to... "Worldwide, civilians represented 97% of all cluster munition casualties, according to a report in August by the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, a campaign group that works to eradicate their use. Children accounted for 66% of all casualties where the age group was known, the report said."
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 19:44:36 GMT
Think of a charity as a business - because that's exactly what it is, and should be.. Sales is fundraising. The product is spending money on furthering their aims. Yes that's everything I dislike about charities. If they start to become so big and important then they start to do what governments should be doing. Be great if governments put charities out of business, wouldn't it? Hell is going to freeze over first. (But one of her roles was working with and accounting for government grant money to the charity - they were the delivery mechanism for taxpayer's money. That's a HUGE part of the third sector. The paperwork requirements were ridiculous.) She Who Must Be Obeyed - the other 'arf, the missus, my life-partner. After 27yrs unmarried life together, she ain't my wife - but she's a lot more than just a girlfriend.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 18:27:05 GMT
...orchestrated £40M benefit for NHS charities and the alleged embezzlements, whilst clearly wrong, are tiny compared to the positive impact. The foundation never saw a tiny fraction of the £40m. That went straight to NHS funds (as it could've anyway, of course...) Their big hype year was FY ending May 2021. It started with the foundation being created, and it ended with it being investigated. register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1189808&subid=0£1m revenue. £370k spent on charitable activities. £9k spent on office rent. Then you look at the filed accounts. £16k on Tom's "accommodation, security, transport" to company started by daughter at the same time as the walks hit the headlines, before the charitable foundation - find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12571495. £27k to daughter's company for "third party consultancy" plus another £10k of expenses to the company and £1,700 directly to daughter.
|
|
adrianc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 9,010
Likes: 4,821
|
Post by adrianc on Jul 9, 2023 18:17:08 GMT
The reality is that Russia is using these weapons already, and their dud rate (which is the danger to civilians) is FAR higher than the US versions. Still, its very noble of you to want to sacrifice more Ukrainian soldiers by forcing them to fight at a disadvantage just so you can virtue signal. TBF I don't think anyone here is against supplying these munitions. I am. I don't believe for ONE SECOND that the US don't have shedloads of non-cluster munitions they could just as easily supply... They should have signed up to the convention a decade and a half ago, anyway, so they shouldn't even have any of the things left. Perhaps they're just palming off the stuff left at the bottom of the heap, paying lip-service to the stated goals? And, yes, so should Russia - but let's not sink to the lowest common denominator's level, eh?
|
|