perplexed

Good to see the EU flag flying. 9th May is Europe day, a time to celebrate joint achievements, and shared objectives. The EU flag should be seen far more often - other EU nations, each with their own national characteristics and idiosyncrasies, have no problem displaying the EU flag all the time alongside of their own national flag.

I would like to think the local police would be making arrests and dealing with people in the appropriate manner - particularly if threats and intimidation are occurring.

Many drivers do not appear to be able to comprehend the signage appertaining to bus lanes as it is - I can't see how adding information about BHs is going to improve this situation. It'd just confuse them even more... Observation and experience only, but by way of example - 9 times out of 10 when I drive down Chesterfield Road near Homebase at, say, 1030am I am the only one driving down the 'bus lane', where everyone else sits in the right hand lane. They don't seem to understand the basic English on the signs which indicate the 'bus lane' ceased at 0930. Similarly on Ecclesall Rd South. Same thing.

Grown people sucking on e-cigs/vaping just remind me of toddlers with their dummies...

At Hungerford, a police officer was killed and an ambulance fired upon if I recall... Armed police need to clear these incident, otherwise you are just sending in more potential fresh targets and increasing the casualty rate.

19c? Blimey, I'm glad I don't pay your heating bill! Ours won't come on until the temperature gets below about 14c.

You're correct. I parked in a supermarket car park last week which was quite empty. I parked almost as far away from the store as possible, with literally dozens of empty spaces round me. When I came back, there were still dozens of empty spaces around me. Except for the one on the driver's side, where a crappy, matt red, million year old Micra had been parked literally 10 inches from my driver's door... Why do people do this for crying out loud...

Groan... Message too short!

Agreed Medusa. I think the only thing possibly practicable would to be have two motorcycle outriders protecting the lead riders - but the problem then arises when there are many splinter groups or breaks. For example, the top 10 riders on GC may be all together in the last few km, or spread about.

After the events of the last part of yesterday's stage, what can be done to reduce the interference of the 'fans' who present such a danger to the riders and others? There's been arguments for extending the barrier section, but how practical is this on a long stretch? I think I like the idea of some rigorous police action, by way of arrests and penalties - difficult at the time, the police are vastly outnumbered, but there is significant footage often. I think the commissaries' decision was correct. Froome was clearly pulling away from Quintana, so for the Tour to be effectively decided by some probably drunken fool would be so wrong.

Rest day today - and that's just for me, I'm tired watching it!

Froome's descent off the col the other day was eye watering... I wonder if Froome knows what Quintana actually looks like, seeing as the Colombian has spent so much time behind him wheel sucking!

Mercedes' fundamental problem, I think is this: Hamilton is faster than Rosberg most of the time. Hamilton generally out qualifies Rosberg most of the time. Rosberg however, certainly this season, generally starts better. So you have the issue of the bloke who's usually fastest actually compromised by being stuck behind the slightly slower guy. This is inevitably going to lead to tears on the track occasionally.

Let's hope he's not in the last two, the man is bonkers.

There certainly are.

I actually quite like it. I have to say, that if people think that's one of the ugliest buildings in the UK, they don't get out much!

I agree - unless the wheels are worth a small fortune, then locking wheel nuts are the work of Satan. They can be a nightmare to get off. I had massive problems with mine recently, so when they did eventually come off I just put ordinary nuts back on. The lockers are just not worth the hassle.

Paris is a wonderful place, but good grief, the amount of dog kak is unbelievable. The UK on the whole is much improved in recent years, but it's still a problem - I personally think that the degree of responsibility many owners feel to pick up the effluent is directly proportional to how may people they think are watching...

To my mind, any notion of accurately prophesising where the UK will be in fiscal terms, or indeed pretty much any terms, at this stage of the game is a little strange. There is so much knee jerking going on the whole country could well be on crutches next week. I think it's like trying to predict what level of degree a toddler will get as he/she turns up for their second week at nursery... We need to look a few years down the road, and despite the many confident, assertive posts on both sides of the argument, nobody knows. For what it's worth, I was a narrow remain voter. But I certainly don't believe some of the extreme views of doom promulgated by certain groups...

Building insurance is often included though...

I was aware of it, but I think I saw it on France24 news channel rather than one of the mainstream British ones - I tend to watch a mix of France24, Sky, BBC and Euronews for my 'TV' news, with the occasional Al-Jazeera bulletin. Sometimes RT for the comedy value...

FYI Cyclone, in that link you provided for the 5% bond says you can invest from now - you don't have to wait until August.

You're right here I must admit - being a private landlord on a small scale isn't particularly profitable by the time you factor in the hassle. We sold ours a few months back. Even sticking the money in say, a year long bond with the Bank of Baroda or somewhere similar works out not much worse a return and there's zero effort required. Interesting what you say about zopa - We're using Ratesetter, which seems to be working out well - can't remember the return off hand, but a heck of a lot better than most.

PeteMorris is correct, there's so much guesswork going on and there are many contradictions. I saw Yanis Varoufakis on the Andrew Marr show last weekend. Regardless of what one thinks to his politics, he's an intelligent guy. He supports the position of the UK remaining in the EU. However, he also stated the Osbourne's economic forecasts/predictions were 'not worth the paper they were written on'. I liked the quip on the show - 'if you laid all the economists in the world end to end they still wouldn't reach a conclusion'.

I think it perfectly reasonable that the tenants should be able to access their home without having to negotiate a large dog jumping around. Friendly or otherwise, I certainly would consider it unacceptable. If the dog is 10 stone, that's a good 2 stone plus heavier than my wife. The OP has a good outcome, well done.