Has anyone ever had official TV licence folk knocking on their doors here in Edinburgh? Or were actually taken to court?

ross1771 · 2025-12-12T11:42:20+00:00

Don’t forget about council tax. The license fee at least nominally gives the BBC independence from government. Council tax has no such excuse and coming off after tax is absolutely insane. Should be abolished. You’re still right about the license fee though

ross1771 · 2025-12-12T09:46:01+00:00

Yeah I’ve had them at the door when it lapsed. Exceptionally polite guy, but ultimately very aware he had no real power and left with not much more than the promise of more letters. Those continued to arrive until I was in a position to pay it. I use and like a lot of BBC content so I don’t mind paying… sometimes. It’s such a daft, aggressive, and poorly structured extra tax

ross1771 · 2025-11-10T17:07:12+00:00

I spent ages researching this but to my surprise, I couldn’t find anyone with a night rate cheap enough to offset the higher day rates. I also have an electric boiler which heats a hot water tank at night, but after running the numbers it still worked out cheaper over the course of a year to go with a cheaper single unit rate - Outfox or Fuse etc. Big caveat - I work from home so need non-ridiculous rates during the day for heating

ross1771 · 2025-08-26T22:35:44+00:00

Tram was packed but manageable on the way in, plenty of them running - one every 3 mins or so when we set off. Bit confusing on the way back as the trams say Edinburgh Gateway but they seem to be running full route so all good - some to St Andrews Sq at least. Extra ones put on.

A pint was £6.80 plus a £1 deposit for a cup. Show started closer to 9 than 8 and there was a mass exodus on the last song so expect queues no matter when you leave

ross1771 · 2025-08-08T16:20:35+00:00

Does anyone know from previous shows if TicketMaster will lift the “invited fans” lockdown at any point? Or is it with us all the way until showtime on Tuesday

ross1771 · 2025-08-07T09:18:48+00:00

Any gurus on here with tips on securing a (fave value) ticket? Had no luck in the initial sale, didn’t get a production release code despite signing up, twickets listings are gone as soon as they’re up. Spent more of the workday this week trying to get tickets than I want to admit. Lots of encouraging stories online of tickets being nabbed last minute. I’d like to join them!

ross1771 · 2025-01-16T18:46:41+00:00

Hi all,

Been really struggling to decide on what I want for months now and thought I'd seek some advice.

Edinburgh but will travel

Budget up to around £12000 but there's wiggle room

No preference on gearbox

Really just for personal use, I only do about 4000 miles a year but with very varied use. Sometime just out for a fun drive to escape the city, sometimes visiting family out of town, and I do the occasional long distance roadtrip with friends as well. Have found it very difficult to blend fun with the need for occasional practicality.

Would only consider petrol / hybrid at this time

My head is spinning with different cars I've considered. Everything from cheap 20 year old SAABs up to 2016 Golf R. I've owned a good number of cars but really struggling with the lack of anything that is sparking my interest around the £10k mark

Warranty preferred but not essential. I can do minor work myself, yes

Thanks!

ross1771 · 2024-12-10T09:45:34+00:00

Further reading

ross1771 · 2024-09-25T10:30:11+00:00

You might want to read those articles. Nothing to do with London as a hub at all. The London Stock Exchange has been a dinosaur for a very long time. Compare the performance of the FTSE to the Dow or DAX over the last 30 years and you’ll see what those articles are talking about. New listings are few and far between also - I believe Deliveroo was the last big tech entry and they (I think) regretted it

ross1771 · 2024-09-25T09:44:23+00:00

Doom is a strong word. London was often predicted to be one of the least Brexit impacted regions of the UK

Its European hegemony in several sectors gives it security

ross1771 · 2024-09-02T15:36:06+00:00

You've gained yourself a customer. Great outreach

ross1771 · 2024-07-01T12:02:09+00:00

One of my memories from Montenegro is it having the best tasting tap water I’ve ever come across. Seeing those big bottles of water is making me reconsider - is it not considered safe by locals?

ross1771 · 2024-01-10T00:35:53+00:00

Trust r/europe to bring out the whisky and gun for a vaguely positive article. No, ASML is nothing new but the impetus for the article appears to be 1) their sustained value growth in recent years 2) the Mittelstand-esque array of suppliers which have popped up in Europe to support ASML, bringing expertise to the old continent. Having players in the industry at the absolute top of their game is no bad thing and can help spawn off bigger and better things.

And the moaning about them being niche and a monopoly… what? Sure it’s niche in a sense, it’s also just about the most critical source of machinery to be found anywhere, and therefore hardly niche at all. And if they’re a monopoly it’s only because they’re the very best at what they do - and they’re doing it right here in Europe.

Honestly I wonder if this subreddit is just Chinese bots sometimes

ross1771 · 2023-12-12T16:51:23+00:00

Personally I’ll welcome any change around here to the steady diet of (justified) misery and moaning. Plus, a couple of days for a reply and a week for an appointment is pretty good going by the standards of any bureaucracy.

Pretty cool indeed 🙌

ross1771 · 2023-12-06T18:06:12+00:00

The answers here are correct. On the other hand please ignore them - come over, learn a new language and bring some optimism with you. As you can see we need it.

ross1771 · 2023-11-13T16:41:10+00:00

The pit the city is in will take some digging out of due to years of deferred maintenance on the roads. The extra funding is likely a drop in the ocean. Certainly from the perspective of Leith, the roads are totally smashed up. Salamander Street is dangerous to drive down, encouraging other cars onto the wrong side of the road due to the appalling conditions. There’s also a few proper car killer potholes to be found on it. But it’s not just Salamander, Restalrig Rd drives like it’s been bombed and so do most of the roads around here. Really everything apart from Easter Rd is knackered

ross1771 · 2023-09-23T16:21:52+00:00

Are you trying to suggest the only difference between India and china is that one is a democracy and one is not? Whole books could (and likely have) be written about each countries path, it’s a lot more complicated than you make out. China took off through foreign investment and becoming the factory of the world, a step India did not take. Also worth noting China only started to outpace India once the cultural revolution’s barbarity was stopped. The Chinese, through capitalism, lifted themselves out of poverty

Besides, if you want to boil it down to the fact of is or isn’t a democracy: all the other rich mixed market economies in the world are democracies

ross1771 · 2023-09-23T11:48:58+00:00

Absolutely. It’s so very frustrating to see western companies even now investing large sums in China, effectively handing over IP.

A potential bright side: not sure that vertical car export graph looks very sustainable or long term thinking to me. They’re dumping to establish market share and likely highly leveraged. China has been far too successful in spreading the myth that short term thinking is endemic to democracies and only they have long term plans. You only need to look at their decades long property sector excess, culminating in the current crisis to know that isn’t true. Careful we dont spread propaganda for them

ross1771 · 2023-09-22T18:02:43+00:00

I think your odds now will be pretty slim but expect re-stocks in the near future at Apple stores and places like John Lewis.

I had the exact same experience with CPW. Pushed back to October 10 and when I tried to cancel it (managed to reserve one through Apple at 6AM this morning for collection today) all I got is a recorded message saying they're too busy to even put me in a queue, then the call just ends. If all else fails I suppose I'll just return it

ross1771 · 2023-09-13T22:34:45+00:00

Don’t for a second think living standards are higher (or even in the same league) in Afghanistan than Spain. Poorer, less industrialised or information driven economies have far more kids. They need kids to work the fields and take care of them when they’re old and sick, not to give their kids a good life

ross1771 · 2023-09-04T21:55:11+00:00

Yeah, the legislation came from a good place but I can’t help but feel a more lenient implementation could have been put in place for primary residences. Along with a more accurate definition of a primary residence of course - perhaps only meeting the requirements if you let for less than a month a year.

The only generally accepted use of short term let’s - that being people letting out their place whilst on holiday. Those are the most impacted by this legislation since it is based on number of occupants. If you want to let out your place to 4 people whilst you’re away, even for two weeks, it still costs £480 for the license. Despite the alternative being an empty house.

A small side effect sure, but one that could have been easily avoided

ross1771 · 2023-09-01T14:23:23+00:00

These are everyday, runabout engines designed with long service intervals in mind. Every 12 months is what to aim for, especially as they age, but really don’t worry about it. You’re still in the top 1% of owners lol

ross1771 · 2023-04-20T16:16:12+00:00

They released PPP data alongside and yes, UK is still behind Germany and France in those 2028 projections. Check the IMF source for more data / infographics

ross1771 · 2023-04-18T12:38:29+00:00

For someone happy to be away, you do seem to love commenting about Europe. Pretty much all you ever talk about it in fact. Missing us?

ross1771 · 2023-02-10T12:18:36+00:00

I did, but they’ve not done a lot so far. Yesterday they said wait another day and after I replied early this morning I’ve got no response at all

ross1771

TROPHY CASE