Off Topic The Burly Arms

That was before they had a professional army, that is why there needs to be an amendment that prevents civilians being able to by military weapons

Canada has more guns per capita than America but they are not military weapons

Ironically Ukraine needs an armed civilian militia at the moment to defend against the Russian Invaders, which would be the argument the Gun Lobby could;d use as an argument to not make any changes

 

Just back in the shire after driving this extremely sensible and practical wagon back from Reading.

No more 3.0 V6 thrills, but my wallet says thank you.

 

I was going to get a wagon for my next vehicle, but the only manual drive estate/station wagon they sell in the US now is a Mini clubman: I don't want a Mini Clubman and I don't want to drive an automatic.

I may have to buy a sportscar just to avoid automatic transmission.

 

Some great hk walks. The ****ing sun was only out for about an hour and a half and resulted in this.

 

Lol
You look like a human drumstick lollipop

 

Found my niche at the chinese state circus then

 

Cool pics though Bobby. I'm out walking right now I could send pics but it would be a Footy pitch and rain.

 

Morning.

 

Looks great for Mountain Biking

 

I've owned one in the past, good vehicle but still too heavy on fuel for my liking.

 

What engine did you have in yours Luv ?

I had one before 1.6 TDI with a 5 speed box and it wasn't great on fuel

This one is a 2.0 TDI with a 6 speed DSG, got around 40 mpg coming back from Reading yesterday 70mph on the motorway.

Pretty happy with that for a Van.

 

Same as yours, it's quick for a people carrier. I'm driving an i20 now and still not happy with the fuel prices being so high it doesn't matter what you drive it's still expensive.

Just looked again thought you'd bought a Touran which is what I had. But that's not one.

 

Yeah fuel prices are ****in ridiculous. It's why I had to get rid of my Touareg, was putting over £100 per week in it and it was doing aound 25mpg

Caddy is based on a Touran, so it's basically a lot of the same running gear. The one I've just bought is a Maxi Life, so it's a bit like a scaled down version of my T5, twin sliding doors, row of 3 in the back, with another 2 seat bench in the boot (which I'll take out and use as a loading bay)

 

I really don't like cars, it's just something that I need. I like my i20 because touch wood nothing goes wrong with them. Last one did 128,000 miles without a single problem so just swapped it for another one with 20,000 miles on it.

 

Yeah I know what you mean, they are more of a headache than anything else tbh.

I like having a van though. I need one for my business and the versatility is good too. Handy for sleeping in when I go off up country to do weekend events etc. Plus can put the bike in the back too. My little un likes us to take a couple of sleeping bags and park up somewhere nice and do some day camping too, so it's a good all round family wagon

 

Yeah im not a big car enthusiast. Currently rocking my 2014 corsa. Nice and small to manoeuvre. Fuel efficient, noo ulez charges, cheap enough that when i ding it and rag it i dont give a ****.

Still going strong.

 

I've actually begun to wonder if the high prices at the pumps is purposely made. I said once Boris said about going all electric, that prices would sky rocket to force people in change. Yet despite the infrastructure not being ready for it, we are accelerating towards it. I said before and I'll say again, I think going all electric is the wrong decision for us, we should have gone hybrid in the first stage, it would have had the same effect in the short term. Just saying imho, that I'm not convinced all these price hikes are not all that they seem, or the supposed reason behind them.

 

I wonder about Electric too. Personally I think Hydrogen engines might be the future, I know Germany is about to put huge amounts into developing hydrogen power.

 

Well we are banning russian oil and russian gas which reduces a lot of supply (although i have heard other countries are just taking russian oil on the cheap and blending it with their own oil and reselling it on, not sure how true this is).

Imagine trying to get an uber right now (actually pretty hard) but we banned indian drivers from driving them. Uber pricing is going to go through the roof

 

Oil prices are controlled by global supply and demand. The massive drop during the pandemic was a result of demand fall, the increase now is due to supply constrictions (not just Russia but a global phenomenon that has seen a lack of investment result in an inability to just switch the supply back on) as demand has increased. It hasn't helped that the commitments of governments to net zero emissions has resulted in a number of the oil majors cutting back on investment in oil and gas and ploughing it into renewables. However that has been quietly changing as the Ukraine crisis has forced countries to think harder about energy security. Oil companies are looking at field developments that they had given up on and the government is considering allowing shale gas exploration (fracking) to restart in the UK.

Fuel prices in Indonesia are linked to global oil prices but are half the price of the UK as there is no government tax on fuel. If the government really wanted to cut petrol costs they could do so by reducing the tax on it but they seem reluctant to do this. This may be in part due to trying to push people over to electric cars. We bought one recently and they work out much cheaper, even charging through 3rd party charging points, rather than at home.

It seems to me that the only way to make people change to electric cars is make sure that they are significantly cheaper than petrol driven. It is obvious when an Eco warrior like Pixie goes out and buys another petrol driven car that for all people say they care about the environment what they mean is that they may care but will not doing anything about it unless it has no financial impact on them.

If they really wanted to push people towards electric cars they would bring back the grant for installing home charge points, cut costs of electricity used for charging cars and remove VAT on electric car purchases, while at the same time increasing emissions tax on petrol cars and keeping petrol prices high.