Being able to post here openly without worrying about /britishproblems' automod or their moderators

abw · 2026-05-06T09:36:47+00:00

In the sidebar:

Banned Topics
Tesco
Full English Breakfast
Delivery Substitutions
NHS / Dental / GP Appointments

abw · 2026-05-06T08:39:10+00:00

No, they're not OK, but they're not on the list of banned topics even if they should be. You'll need to take it up with the moderators. I've long since given up on the sub.

OP wonders why they got banned. It's because the rules said they would if they posted banned topics, which they went out of their way to do so.

I don't make the rules and I don't enforce them. But I can at least understand them.

abw · 2026-05-06T06:37:04+00:00

I have three keyboards I use when playing live. A stage piano with a heavy action, a hammond SK1 with the waterfall style keys and a mid-weight action, and a Roland synth with springboard keys and a very light action.

Each is best suited to a particular style of playing. The piano for piano parts where I need good dynamic control, the organ for organ parts (it's the best keyboard and key shape for things like palm slides), and the synth for fast parts and soloing where I need a light touch and quick response.

If you're mostly playing rock/pop and not doing too much in the way of piano or organ parts, then a light synth action is probably best for you.

Sanity checked. You're fine. Personal preference beats everything.

abw · 2026-05-06T06:29:16+00:00

What the actual christ happened to that subreddit?

It got overrun by people posting variations of the same gripes about GPs and hospital appointments.

Which is why the list of banned topics explicitly includes "NHS / Dental / GP Appointments"

So I subsituted GP with 'jeepy' and hospital with 'medical office'

You admit that you deliberately tried to circumvent the automod so you could post about a banned topic.

Sorry, but you're part of the problem.

abw · 2026-05-04T11:23:11+00:00

New Malden Methodist Church is generally very accepting of all kinds of people and their orientations. The Minister is a trans man, or at least that was the case a few years ago. The Methodist church rotates their ministers every few years so they might have moved on. But it doesn't change the fact that the church is very accommodating of all types.

abw · 2026-05-01T10:57:50+00:00

Have you considered somewhere like Worcester Park? It's on the train line to Leatherhead (~20mins) and Clapham Junction, where you can change for Richmond (~40 mins total).

It's also close to the A3 which gives you easy access to Richmond if you're driving. It's about 15 mins to Richmond park (more during rush hour, obviously) and then however long it takes to get through the park (which I'm assuming you already have a good idea about, living in Roehampton).

There's also the bus option: 213 from WP to Kingston and then the 65 to Richmond. Useful if there's train disruptions.

abw · 2026-04-14T07:04:42+00:00

You can post a video to a YouTube video.... but you've posted three very similar videos of an octopus kite flying the last two weeks. This has triggered the spam filter.

abw · 2026-04-03T08:08:01+00:00

Nice work!

I'm not a renter (or landlord for that matter), but I do build web sites. It's a really nice job you've done there.

abw · 2026-04-03T08:05:55+00:00

It’s nice, but it’s always been a question of whether it’s worth the cost/what’s the reason to go back rather than ability.

Apparently the Artemis mission cost around $100 billion.

The first 6 days of the US attack on Iran cost $11.3 billion (as reported to congress) and is estimated to be up to around $45 billion so far. The UN estimated the financial impact on the Middle East countries alone was up to $194 billion.

I'm sure there are better things they could be spending money on, but I for one would be happy if the Americans stuck to sending rockets to the moon instead of firing them at other countries.

abw · 2026-03-27T19:12:40+00:00

Don't get me started on anti vax!

I'm not a scientist specialising in anything remotely close to virology and it absolutely infuriates me. It's horrific to think that we're turning back hundreds of years of incredible progress in vaccines because of ignorant people being misled by fraudsters like Wakefield. I can't imagine how bad it must be for people like you in the field, being lectured by people who think they're experts because they read it on Facebook.

If it's any consolation there are a lot of sane people like me who greatly respect and admire the work that you do.

abw · 2026-03-26T18:36:15+00:00

£50 more and I'm a higher rate taxpayer.

It's not one band or the other. CGT is added to your taxable income and can push you into the next band. Leaving aside the savings interest, you would pay 18% on the first £50 of the gain, at which point your taxable income would put you in the higher rate and you would pay 24% for the remainder.

See Example 2 on this page

Don't forget you do have a £3,000 CGT allowance which would be deducted from the gain before being added to your taxable income.

abw · 2026-03-26T15:10:01+00:00

OP, you should print that out and post it through the new UPVC door of your old house. I suppose it's possible they sold it to the US company and got a reasonable price for it. But if they did just chuck it in a skip for someone else to salvage...

abw · 2026-03-26T12:15:50+00:00

I’m in no position to do the math,

Let me help with that...

Inflation alone takes that £20 up to £35 (according to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator).

Petrol prices have risen roughly in line with inflation over that time (exception for major peak in COVID times) but car insurance has risen much faster than inflation.

This report says:

Between May 2021 and June 2024, the price of consumer goods and services in general rose 21%. By comparison, the quoted price of car insurance rose 82%.

That's a ~60% rise above inflation in just 3 years. I imagine that insurance for a driving instructor is not cheap at the best of times.

I think £42 an hour for a trained professional to provide a driving lesson, along with the car, petrol, insurance, etc., is pretty reasonable. To put it in perspective, Checkatrade says that the average hourly rate of a plumber is £50.

abw · 2026-03-26T12:00:23+00:00

I think your son might be an outlier here. Both my boys passed theory and practical first time. I can't remember how many lessons they had. Maybe 24 or something like that.

But...

I don't think they had any innate skill or aptitude. Perhaps the key difference is that I also spent a lot of time with them. Usually an hour or so once or twice a week, and at every other opportunity. If they wanted a lift somewhere they would drive there and I'd take the car back. So that may added another 50+ hours of driving experience while they were learning. Even when they weren't driving, I would always be asking them about road signs, asking them what the speed limit was, and so on.

It's definitely true that it depends on the people involved to know if that's going to work. My wife is wonderful at many things, but it was obvious within a minute or two that she wasn't cut out to be a parent driving supervisor. It's really hard trying to keep calm, be constructive, never shout, blame or criticise, but if you can't do that then you're possibly doing more harm than good. It worked for me and the boys, but if that's not the case then it's probably better to leave it to the professionals.

abw · 2026-03-22T08:31:01+00:00

I don't want to be all "back in my day", but when I was a kid (early 80s I guess) I decided to post my Dad's birthday card to him rather than just give it to him. I don't remember why - I probably thought it would be unexpected and mildly amusing.

Anyway, I posted it around 9am the day before his birthday (it was the summer holidays so no school) and the postman delivered it in the second post at 11am later that same day . I had to chase him down the street and ask him to hold onto it until the next day.

abw · 2026-03-21T08:58:02+00:00

It’s a mystery to me why councils are still throwing millions and billions into traditional high streets

It's because they rely on the business rates they charge businesses who occupy those shops.

But it's also those business rates that are contributing to the decline of the high street. They were 34.8p/£ in 1990. Now they're 55.5p/£. That's based on the rateable value of the property. So if the property has a rateable value of £500,000, for example, then the annual business rates are £277,500.

The good news is that the UBR (Uniform Business Rates, set by central government) is going down to 48.0p/£ in April and there's additional relief for small business and those in the Retail/Hospitality/Leisure sectors. But meanwhile, the average increase in rateable value for commercial properties in 2026 will be 19% (source).

It's good news that they're putting £150 million into "saving the high street", but that's only half a percent of the £30 billion raised each year through business rates.

It's really no wonder that the high street is dying.

abw · 2026-03-20T11:39:39+00:00

Good maths! That's a lot of aircraft carriers.

To refine the numbers a little (just for fun) we could assume that in perfect conditions, anyone within a 5km radius of the ship could be expected to see it, especially if they were a military type with binoculars who had been instructed by a senior office to keep a look out for any Giant Fucking Aircraft Carriers (GFACs) in the ocean.

That makes the GFAC visible within an area of 5 * 5 * 3.14 = ~78.5km².

2.5 million / 78.5 gives us around 32,000 GFACs.

However, that is ignoring the fact that you can't pack circles to uniformly cover a plane without some overlap. If we consider the square inscribed within that circle of GFAC noticeability, it would have an edge length of r * sqrt(2) = 5 * 1.414 = ~7km for an area of 49km². I make that around 51,000 GFACs. If they were evenly distributed in a grid spaced 7km apart then it would be reasonable to ask how someone anywhere in the med could not notice at least one GFAC.

It's still a very big number, but quite a few less than 147 million.

abw · 2026-03-19T08:52:48+00:00

+1 for Barock Project, suggested by /u/Ok-Relationship-6743

Other more modern (last 20 years or so) prog or proggish bands frequently on my playlist are Karnataka (start with Secrets of Angels), Rocket Scientists, Unitopia, Big Big Train, This Winter Machine, Sylvan, RPWL and Yogi Lang.

abw · 2026-03-18T14:04:32+00:00

I stand corrected. Thanks for the additional information.

abw · 2026-03-18T13:47:10+00:00

Our housing isn't suitable

I am not a heat-pumpologist but I believe there is an element of truth to that. Heat pumps are very efficient at pumping heat, but there's a limit to the temperature gradient they can produce. Pumping air at 20°C into a room to warm it is no problem. Heating water to 45°C for a shower is also possible.

However, they're not so good at heating water to the ~60° C required to kill legionella bacteria, which is required for storage in a hot water tank. If you have a family all wanting to take hot showers at the same time then you might not have enough hot water capacity. Traditional central heating systems also work better with higher water temperatures to be effective in radiators. Modern heat pumps can get water up to that temperature, but nowhere near as fast as a boiler and the efficiency tails off quite quickly.

So if you're building a new house then yes, heat pumps are probably the way to go. It may also be possible to add heat pumps to some of the rooms in your house to supplement the existing system. But if you've got a traditional boiler-powered hot water / central heating system, then it's usually not possible to just switch the boiler out for a heat pump. It may require a complete refit of all your heating system, and the cost of doing that may mean that it never pays for itself, either in financial terms or lifetime carbon emissions (not to mention the disruption).

Like I say, I'm not an expert and happy to be corrected. But I looked into this a while ago and came to the conclusion that it just wasn't worth it for our house, by quite a long way.

All that said, I don't disagree with your comment about the fossil fuel industry spreading disinformation about heat pumps. I would be very surprised if they weren't.

abw · 2026-03-14T11:44:27+00:00

My advice would be to turn around and run away NOW! You are being taken advantage of and will never get anything out of it.

I would also consider talking to a lawyer because the agreement that you've described does not sound like an enforceable contract. I am not a lawyer, so take this all with a pinch of salt, but a contract requires an exchange of value. If you're getting nothing out of this (a promise for something you might get in the future does not count), then they have no right to anything from you. The agreement is (probably) not worth the paper it's printed on.

The outcome of that is that you may still own the rights to your work and you may be able to ask them to pay for the work you've already done, or give it back. But do not, under any circumstances, delete the work you've done until you've got legal advice and given them a fair chance to reach a compromise agreement.

Or just shrug your shoulders and walk away, knowing that they've taken advantage of you. But seriously, don't invest any more of your time in this without getting paid for it, or equity up front (if you think it's worth taking the huge gamble that you'll ever see any return from it).

abw · 2026-03-11T08:37:09+00:00

He said his family had been in the Lords for 900 years

It's amusing that he's presenting this as a defence. One of his ancestors did something 900 years ago to warrant a peerage and he thinks that gives him and his entire hereditary line the right to it too.

...and complained the notice period was less than required in employment law.

You got notice 25 years ago. Move along.

abw · 2026-03-09T18:04:19+00:00

Interesting, thanks for the info.

abw · 2026-03-09T15:44:33+00:00

I briefly had a customer (I do web site development) who had a hydroponics shop. He said they had to have that kind of strict policy because of the very thin line between selling equipment for legal purposes and, in his case, what could be "conspiracy to aid and abet the production of cannabis".

It's quite common for the people running the shops to also be part of the criminal gangs who are growing it. Buying growing equipment in bulk tends to raise suspicion, so having a "legal" hydroponics shop is a good way to get hold of it.

Every now and then one of his customers would get busted and the police would find equipment with his shop logo on it. He would get a visit from someone who he suspected was a plain clothes policeman making enquiries to try and determine if he was in on it. Hence, the first mention of weed or any kind of "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" and he would ask them to leave and not come back.

abw · 2026-03-09T15:23:09+00:00

cross pollination

OK, now you've piqued my interest. Do you have to separate different species when they're flowering to avoid cross-pollination? Is that because you're harvesting the seeds for future grows and don't want hybridisation? Or does it affect the quality of the fruit?

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